Is There Something Beyond This?
by Atrophy-Conception
Summary: This is my take on what Sally's life was like before Jack, and how they came to meet. This is my first story, so I'd appreciate feedback.
1. House Guests

Is There Something Beyond This?

Chapter One: House Guests

Sally sat on her bed in the dark, deep in thought. She wasn't entirely sure why she was locked in her room…or why the doctor had taken the bottom portion of her legs away from her for the day…for that matter. She had only been asking questions…and although she knew he got rather frustrated with her sometimes when she asked too many, she didn't think he would get so angry that he would punish her in this way. And he had seemed rather angry before shutting her in her dark and lonely room. Since then she had been pondering what had set him off.

"Let's see…" Sally said to herself, quietly so that the Dr wouldn't here her making any sound. "I asked him about the colorful vials on the shelf…that can't be it…about the book he was reading…I don't know why he would get upset about that…about his new experiments…" Sally sighed in frustration. "No…I don't get it…why did he get so upset with me?" Still thinking, she gazed out her window. From where she was sitting she couldn't see much, just the tops of the crooked buildings that lined the town, the pumpkin shaped sun, and… "Of course!" Sally cried triumphantly. Before he had gotten so angry with her she had asked about the long tower jutting out above the other buildings. She had been curious about it because it was the best thing she had view of from her dingy window, and dark and less than cozy room. Suddenly she frowned. Why would that make him angry? She had only asked him what it was, and who lived there. She had asked because sometimes in the night after finishing all of her work for the doctor, she would see a trim figure against the light, pacing about the tower. She knew he hated it when she asked him about the town. She often asked about the people who lived their, what they did, why they wondered about in such a hurry all of the time, why the Dr himself didn't join them so often, when it seemed that so many of them were in each others company all of the time. Why should her questions about the strange figure who dwelled in that strange yet intriguing tower be any different?

She was still pondering this when she heard a mechanic whirring sound outside her door, and then the thump of the lock on her bedroom being pulled up. Dr Finklestein appeared in the doorway. "Sally…You can come out now if you want." He rolled towards her carrying her legs. "Sit up now and let me sow these back on." Sally grinned. "I can do it, I've been practicing." The doctor gave her a dark look that wiped the smile off of her face. She shouldn't have offered, she knew he didn't like that either, when she showed any sort of independence. She supposed it went along with what he constantly said about her being his. For some reason it made him rest easier when she couldn't do anything short of what he made her for, to walk, breathe, and do all of the things he himself didn't feel like doing. "Sally, I don't want you wasting your time doing things that are unneccasary." Dr Finkelstein said, while sewing her left leg back onto her thigh. "But, my chores were done, I did it in my free time!" Sally argued. The Dr gave her a dark look and began on her right leg. "No more, understand?" Sally sighed. "Yes master…" She said halfheartedly. "Good…in time you'll understand, your just not ready for so much responsibility." The doctor gathered his yarns and needles and wheeled himself out the door. "You'll be wanting to start on dinner now Sally, if it's going to be ready by eight…I have some experiments I need to do, but I expect to be very hungry when I finish." "Yes, sir." She said in a melancholy manner.

How could he say she wasn't ready for responsibility? What was learning to sew up her own limbs compared to all of the other things he had her do around the house. She did every difficult chore, short of the ones that would take her outside of the house, which he did himself, while he fiddled with various experiments within his lab. She understood that he was busy, but wasn't that even more of a reason for her to learn to take care of herself?

She stood up and walked shakily to the door. After sitting on her bed for the last six hours, she was finding it a bit difficult to move her legs, which was always the case when she was separated from her limbs for too long. By the time she had walked down the long metal stairway and into the kitchen she was walking fine again. Or, rather, she was walking as fine as she could, being a rag doll.

Sally opened the cabinet, stepping back and letting out a gasp as a few bats flew outward when the bit of light touched them. After the bats had departed she looked throughout the cabinet for something she could serve the Dr on this evening. Since she had upset him, she decided to brew him something special that took a bit more work then the ordinary type of stew she served to him, which usually consisted of wormswort, asphodel, and occasionally frogs breathe, which she rarely used, not because the doctor didn't like it, but because she could only bare using it every once in while, for it was the foulest smelling ingredient she had ever come by. Tonight she thought she could handle it.

She began mixing several odd ingredients in a pot, deciding to make a sauce to put over some type of meat, though she had not figured which type yet, and was deciding between either snake tails or roasted newt when the doctor barged in. "Sally!" Sally jumped and dropped a pot of dahlias on the floor, sending sweet smelling nectar across the dusty wood of the doctor's kitchen. "New plans." The doctor paused and sniffed the air. "What is that awful stench?" Sally blushed a little. "It's your dinner." "Well…" started the Dr. "It smells disgustingly sweet. I can't have that for my guests, start again!" Sally was snapped out of her embarrassment and shame for a moment, and looked at the doctor with a curious excitement in her eye. "Guests?" "Yes, the mayor and a few others are coming over to discuss my contribution to this years celebration." He turned and began to roll at the door, but turned back as Sally began picking the dahlias plant off of the floor, and mopping up the nectar. "Don't disappoint me Sally, you've already tested my patience once today…I expect to taste something absolutely horrible this evening." He sniffed the air again and shook his head, mumbling something of a curse to the sweet healing herb's horribly rich smell.

Sally finished cleaning up the mess she made and emptied the meal into the sink, thinking it an awful shame to get rid of something that had actually turned out quite good. On a normal occasion she would have been upset at the doctors rude remarks and criticism, not to mention embarrassed and ashamed of her own pathetic behavior. However, on this evening she was finding it absolutely impossible to feel bad. The doctor was having guests. The only two people she had ever been around with were Dr Finklestein and Igor. Of any of the other residents of this strange and mysterious town she had not seen in the least. The thought exited her. Of course, she wasn't fool enough to believe the doctor would let her speak to anyone, but just the idea of catching a glimpse of them filled her with wondrous curiosity.

She started again with dinner, this time making one of the doctor's favorite stews. The whole time she was imagining what Dr Finkelsteins guests might be like, or look like, or act like. She barely noticed the time pass.

An hour later the doctor wheeled back into the kitchen, this time struck by a much more pleasant odor, meaning, of course, a much more horrible odor. "Ah, much better, I'm sure it will be adequate for my guests." Sally smiled a little, taking this as a compliment coming from the Dr. "When shall I serve it master." Sally asked curiously. The doctor fixed her with a stern gaze. "Actually, Sally, I've decided to give you the evening off." Sally's own smile faded. "What?" "I'm giving you the evening off Sally, as thanks for doing such a wonderful job." "But, I don't mind, I can serve dinner for you and your guests." The doctor's smile faded completely. "Nonsense." He wheeled a ways. "I want you to stay in your room tonight. I'll get Igor to serve dinner for me…" Sally stood, feeling very upset. "But…I want to serve dinner tonight, why wont you let me see people!" The doctor stopped in the process of fetching Igor and turned to Sally with a bitter look. "Your not ready to meet people yet." "Yes I am! I can do it I know I can!" The doctor interrupted her as she began to protest further. "You will wait in your room like a good girl, and not make a sound until I say it's alright and let you out! Any more protests and I'll take your arms away as well as your legs and see if you like laying helpless all night!" Sally fell silent. "Sally?" The doctor said, still angry. "Yes, master." Sally replied sadly. She slowly walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her bedroom, and after closing the door behind her, fell on her bed, and began to cry.

An hour later the Dr' doorbell rang. Dr Finklestein, who had been busy straightening up the dining area and locating a few more seats from various places around the house, which had been rather difficult considering his utter lack of house guests, stopped in the process in brushing off a bit of dust from a particularly old looking recliner. "The doors open, come in Mayor!" The doctor called. From behind him he heard the door open, and a couple shadows fell on him, giving him a most upsetting feeling of responsibility to greet his houseguests. He hated entertaining. He turned with his chair to face the two Halloween residents. "I hope the seats are well enough for you given this most upsetting hour you've chosen to barge in on my…" He was stricken silent. The mayor stood sporting his worried face, one of the two he was able to display, but it wasn't the mayor, or his less then joyous attitude that had silenced the doctor in the middle of his complaint. "Oh!" The doctor said, surprised and more then just a bit peeved at Halloween Towns elected official, for not bothering to let Dr Finklestein in on who he was bringing for dinner. "Jack Skellington!" the doctor said, his bitter attitude seemingly obliterated. "I didn't know YOU we're joining me this evening. Of what do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Standing next to the mayor, towering above him was the Pumpkin King, giving the doctor a pleasant smile. "It's actually a bit of a last minute thing doctor, I'm sorry if I'm causing you any inconvenience by coming." The doctor's smile broadened, but never reached his eyes. "Of course not, my boy, no trouble at all. If you'll excuse me, I need to check on the dinner really quickly, make sure it's finished, please make yourselves comfortable." The doctor wheeled out of the room, his smile fading immediately, after he got out of sight of the Pumpkin King.

Sally was sitting at her window, staring out into the night. She eyed the tall tower, and felt a dropping sensation in her heart. Dark tonight. Either the person who lived there had gone to sleep or stepped out. This disappointed her. Suddenly from behind she heard a peculiar and familiar sound. "That's odd…it sounded like…" Sally's eye's widened; she got to her feet and ran to the large wooden door. Feeling terror in her heart she grabbed the handle and pushed. The door didn't budge. She had been locked in her room for the second time that day.


	2. Them and You

Because I forgot to mention so in the first one, I'd like to say that I do not own any of the characters in this story, but am not sad about it because I believe that the right person does.

Chapter Two: Them and You

"It's all finished!" The doctor announced while wheeling into the dining room. He took a spot opposite of the mayor, and fixed Jack with a pleasant look that Sally would not have recognized.

"So what brings you here Jack? Surely, I'd think you'd be much too busy with the celebration being as close at it is." Jack, who had been standing moved to the large seat to the right of the mayor. "Well," started Jack while he sat, sending a cloud of dust up from the old recliner. "The Jack o' Lantern's that we were going to use at the beginning of the celebration were destroyed, and I need something frightening to take their place, before All Hallows Eve when we perform the dress rehearsal…I know it's a lot to ask, there really isn't much time, but…" "Nonsense…" The doctor interrupted. "I'll come up with something before All Hallows Eve…with time to spare even." Jack grinned. "Wonderful! I Knew I could count on you!" "Don't mention it." The doctor replied, sporting his thoughtful face.

The mayor seemed relieved to here the doctor in such good spirits, for his face changed from one of worry to one of joy. "Fantastic!" The mayor said. "Now there are just a few more matters _we_ need to discuss, Dr Finkelstein." The doctor turned from Jack, his smile becoming a bit more forced.

"First, if you don't mind, mayor, I'd like to taste bit of this food the doctor's been bragging about." Jack said before the mayor got too far in his conversation. "Of course you may my boy. Igor!" Through the door, a small and slumped over little man dragged his way across the floor. He carried the meal in a way that gave the impression that he would drop it at any second. "Here master." Igor said in his odd and unpleasant voice. He set the meal down before the doctor.

The mayor whiffed the air. "That smells delicious!" He declared. Jack smiled politely, but not quite as enthusiastically. He wasn't a huge fan of frog's breath, and this particular stew just by the smell seamed to be overpowered by it. The doctor released Igor and surveyed the mayor and Jack expectantly. The mayor began to eat, and seeing his obligation Jack followed suite. "I hope it's suitable for you." "It's just fine." Jack said after forcing down a bite. The mayor was enjoying himself. "This is quite good, did you make it yourself?" He asked. The doctor frowned slightly. "No, I'm not a very good cook myself, far too busy on experiments to mess with such idle tasks." The mayor looked curious. "Igor then?" Dr Finklestein considered for a moment. "Actually, a new creation of mine." "Oh? Of what sort?" Jack asked while forcing down another bite. "Well, a sort of servant, not very smart...kind of dysfunctional." The mayor pushed his bowl away. "Well you definitely wouldn't notice it by this meal!" He said joyfully. "Well…" Started the doctor, eager to prove his point. "This was a kind of a second try really, the first time it made this dreadful smelling sauce with Dahlias in it…I made her do it again." Jack raised her brow. "Her?" He said while examining his stew with curiosity. "It." The doctor said testily. "I meant it." Jack didn't seam to notice his tone. The mayor spoke up. "Well, she did a fine job the second time, despite the first mishap with the Dahlias, it would be most unfortunate to come across eating something like that." Jack frowned. "Yea…" He said in sort of a down manner. He would have much preferred sauce with dahlias in it then he would ANYTHING with frogs breathe.

"Well," said the mayor. "Me and Jack should probably get going…a lot of work to do yet." Jack looked up upon hearing his name. Inwardly, he felt his heart sink…well; he would have, anyway, if he had an inside…or a heart. Still, he stood and began to follow the mayor.

The doctor escorted them towards the door, before he shut the door on them the mayor turned. "Wait, I still have something…" He was cut off when the door slammed in his face. Jack was already halfway down the walk. "Hmmm…" The mayor thought. "Must've not heard me." He hurried after Jack when he realized the Pumpkin King was already well on his way towards the fountain in the center of town.

Throughout the whole dinner Sally had been in her room making a decision. She had to get out. In the hours she sat in her lonely quarters she began to think, for the first time (seriously anyway) how she would go about breaking out of the house. The only thing she came up with, however, felt foolish and dangerous. But every time she tried to tell herself this, she'd spot that mysterious tower which seamed to beckon her on. And so, gathering her nerves, she gathered up two spools of thread and a few needles, and placed her hand on the glass of her window. 'I can do this' she thought to herself. She put her pressure on the window, and with a pop it opened. Sally's heart raced…she had no idea what a jump from this height would do to her…she could only hope for the best, but just as she got ready to make the jump, her bedroom door opened.

The Doctor sat on his wheelchair in the doorway, surveying the very frightened girl in front of him…who looked both scared to death, and very guilty. The Doctor sneered. "Sally? What exactly were you planning to do my dear?" Sally shut the window. "N nothing sir." She said softly. "Liar." Sally winced. "So this is what I get for creating you, for accepting you despite your constant mistakes, you immense ignorance, your complete and utter disrespect!" Sally hung her head. "I'm sorry, master." "Sit down sally, I think a punishment is in order." Sally sat without protest, dreading what his punishment might be for catching her in the act of trying to sneak out. When she was sitting the doctor began to pull the stitches from her legs. "This is for your own good, you know that don't you my dear?" "Yes, sir."

While the doctor pulled the thread from her right leg sally's eye's wondered back to that large tower. "You'll understand someday Sally that…" The doctor stopped upon seeing she wasn't listening. He followed her gaze. At first, his anger flared…then he sighed inwardly, Sally's curiosity would just keep growing, if she continued to think of the tower and Halloween town as some fascinating mystery. He decided it was time to break her fantasy. He had never dreamed she would actually try to sneak out…now that he knew she would, it was time to prevent it from ever actually happening."

"I can see you wont leave it alone, so I guess its time I tell you about Halloween Town." Sally looked at him with some surprise…then her face broke out in excitement. "Really." She said hopefully, hoping this wasn't some sort of trick, although the doctor was hardly known for his sense pf humor. "Yes, really, but you have to promise that if I do, you wont ever try to sneak out of your window again!" "I wont, I promise." Sally said enthusiastically, she was finally going to understand the strange and attractive world outside of her room, and this house, making such a promise seamed pale in comparison. The doctor examined her carefully, perhaps deciding whether or not she was being sincere, then sat back in his wheelchair and began.

"Halloween Town's soul purpose is creating a horrifying celebration each and every year, which is more horrifying then the one the year before." Sally interrupted. "What sort of celebration?" The doctor frowned. "Don't interrupt me, Sally." Sally began fiddling with the stitches in her fingers, and wished she could curl her toes as well, but considering that her legs were laying beside the Doctors chair, there was nothing she could do about that. "Sorry." She said. "Fine, then. The celebration is for Halloween." "What's Halloween?" Sally said before stopping herself. The Doctor gave her a dark look, but said nothing about her interruption this time. "Halloween is a holiday where all of the residents of this town, go out and try to scare people as best as we can, hoping to scare more people then the year before. We put together as much frightening things as we can, and we use them in our celebration. Everyone in town contributes, it's how we live." The doctor looked at Sally expectedly, but she had fallen silent. The whole purpose of this town was to scare people? What sort of existence was that? She decided to wait until the doctor finished before passing any sort of judgment, but so far, she was a bit confused at why a whole town would care so much about frightening people.

"Anyway, that was the reason the mayor visited tonight, to ask me about my contributions. I make a lot of the important things for the celebration…" The doctor went on from there, mostly in self-praise, not noticing that Sally had slipped into sort of a daydream. She was once again looking at the top of the tower. It's light had gone on, and she could vaguely make out movement behind the glass. 'Whoever it was…' Sally thought. 'They're back at home now.' "Sally!" Sally snapped out of her thoughts and turned towards the doctor in surprise. "Sorry!" She said quickly. The doctor followed the direction in which she had been gazing, and his eye's fell upon Jack's tower for the second time that evening. His lips tightened in anger.

"Fine! If you can have no patience, I will tell you of the tower!" Sally's eye's lit up. He now had her full attention. She vaguely noticed that the doctor's tone turned from matter of fact, to cool as he spoke again.

"That tower, that sits so far above the rest of this town, belongs to the head of this town himself…" Sally looked puzzled for a moment. "The mayor?" She said, coming to the only conclusion she could based on what she had heard her master say in the past. The doctor's frown deepened. "No, the mayor is a clumsy twit, and only is elected each year because no one else wants a job that carries so much pressure!" "Then who?" Sally asked curiously. "That tower belongs to The Pumpkin King!" Sally lowered her eye's, gazing at the fabric of her ragged dress. Why had she never heard of the Pumpkin King? She heard the mayor brought up in several conversations the doctor had with himself or Igor, and occasionally with her, when he spoke of the mayor's incompetence, but she had never heard of the Pumpkin King, and supposable it was HE and not the mayor, who was the head of Halloween Town. "Who is he?" She asked finally "He is the man behind Halloween each and every year. Since he took over the preparations and became the Pumpkin King…in a time so long ago I've forgotten just when it was, Halloweens gotten increasingly horrible each and every year." The doctor said while rolling towards the window for dramatically affect. This statement puzzled Sally. "If it's gotten more horrible, why do they keep him?" The doctor turned and fixed her with a look that made her both embarrassed and ashamed, though she hardly knew why. "You see…" The doctor said. "This is why you are not ready to venture into Halloween Town."

He rolled away from the window, towards her bedroom door. "Wait!" Sally called after him. The doctor tuned…his patience appeared to be thinning. "I don't understand why…why can't I see the people in town?" The doctor sighed and gave her a look of over exaggerated pity.

"Dear Sally, the people in this town wouldn't understand you, just as you can probably never understand them." Sally felt a peculiarly unpleasant sensation in her heart. "I don't understand…" "Of course not." The doctor said, getting closer to her. "You can't, the people in this town wouldn't get you…you don't belong here Sally, I made you, and I tried the best I could…but I still must of went wrong somewhere…" He shook his head feigning sadness. Sally's previous excitement had all but faded now. "Can't you fix me?" Sally said quietly. "I'm afraid not, dear. All I can do for you is keep you here, where the people of this town won't see you…your better off just forgetting about them Sally. In time your curiosity will pass, but you must understand, this is a matter of them and you…and you do not belong with them"

The doctor wheeled out of her room, leaving Sally feeling worse then she had all day. She laid herself down using her arms to get her in a semi comfortable position. The doctor had left her legs, and she could have probably sewn them back on, but any desire she may have had to do so had left with her anticipation.

'No wonder he didn't tell me.' She thought. She turned on her bed and gazed out at the moon. "I wish I'd never asked…" She said softly to her still room, where no one heard her aside from the spiders spinning webs in the darkness. As if it were some sort of a cruel sign, the light in Jack's house went out.

Yeah, I ended the first one with a cliffhanger, and this one depressingly. I didn't want her to meet Jack just yet, but I'm pretty sure she'll meet him in the next chapter. Thank you for your reviews. I appreciate it.


	3. A Trim Figure Upon A Spiral Hill

It took hours but I finally finished it! This ones a good deal longer then the others. The reason being that I promised that Jack and Sally would meet in this chapter, and was determined to keep my promise.

Chapter Three:

A Trim Figure Upon a Spiral Hill.

The next day Sally moped around the house, doing her chores in a halfhearted manner. Any other day, she would be daydreaming, or humming, or pausing every chance she got to look out the window into the mysterious town of Halloween. The only thing was, the town wasn't mysterious anymore, or, at least it wasn't quite as mysterious as it had been. Sally still had never been there, or had never met anyone, but what she did know was still enough to kill her spirits. It wasn't the part about the town's existence revolving around scaring people either. Sally just didn't understand that part, and it wouldn't have bothered her at all if it wasn't for the what the doctor had said about her. _'This is a matter of you and them Sally and YOU don't belong with THEM.' _She lowered her head and concentrated on her dusting. Still, unpleasantly, she found the phrase ran though her head throughout the day no matter what she did. Constantly reminding her that she would never have a life outside of the one she knew.

Sally had just started on the dining room (rather gloomily, because due to the lack of visitors it got twice as dusty as any other room in the house.) when she heard the mechanic whirring of the doctors wheelchair. Dr. Finkelstein rolled in and scanned the room. "Leave it." Sally looked uncertainly at the thick blanket of dust covering the table and chairs. "It makes people feel unwelcome. They never stay around for long. Besides.." The doctor said while wiping his finger across a nearby cabinet and peering at it, satisfied that it had gathered a considerable amount of dust and left a dark mark in it's wake. "I like the dust. Most dust particles come from dead skin, you know." Sally, although finding this information somewhat unfortunate smiled weakly.

"Anyway, I came in here to tell you, you won't have to be making dinner tonight." The doctor said, leaning back in his chair and gazing at Sally beneath his thick, dark glasses. Sally looked at him curiously. "Why not?" He had never given her the night off cooking before. "I won't be here. A town meeting has been called and I must attend. I have to present my new experiment to those present." He made a face that suggested he really would rather not. "I'm not sure how long it will last, but since it is the last one before Halloween, and there's still much to do, I'm guessing it may take awhile." "Well," Started Sally. "What shall I do while your gone?" The doctor appeared to think a minute, then fixed her with a stern gaze. Wondering if his words the previous night had had any effect on her and whether or not he could trust her to keep her promise. "I suppose if your good for the rest of the day…you can work on your sewing a little." Sally looked puzzled. "I thought you didn't want me to work on my sewing." "Well, this one time should be alright, as long as you don't do it again unless I say it's ok." Sally smiled a little. "Thank you, master."

That evening Sally watched from her window as the doctor wheeled off. She sat on her bed, and folded her hands in her lap. She didn't really have any intention to continue her sewing. Her reason being that she was still very depressed, and that she had been doing it anyway, despite the doctors protests. It was the only thing she had ever disobeyed him about. She still felt bad about it sometimes. It felt wrong to do something that her master told her not to. But she didn't feel she could get along without knowing how to sew. After all, she would tell herself in hopes to lessen her guilt, what if she had an accident and the doctor wasn't around to sew her up. Then what would she do? This usually worked to make her feel less ashamed for a while, anyway.

After a while Sally stood as she had decided to finish her work on the entry room. She had still had a few things to do in there when the doctor told her she could retire to her room for the evening. She may as well do them now, rather then having them added to her work load the next day.

The entry room was the dark and dingy room, in which the front door opened up to. In Sally's opinion, it was probably the ugliest and dullest room in the house, but the doctor liked it, he said that the room kept guests away. Sally had begun to suspect, that everything the doctor owned, that could possibly be seen from an outsider's eyes, was used only for the purpose of keeping them from ever coming back.

The front door, however, was the most devastating part of the room. Unlike most doors, which had one lock, or even some doors, which had two or three (and belonged to those paranoid sort of people that could be seen cowering behind them, waiting for someone to come and get them.) Dr Finkelstein's door had thirteen. They went down the door making it look hideous and strange. And, if the entry room, and the dining room, and the doctors less then welcoming attitude didn't convince someone that he didn't want them around, just one look at that door was sure to do it. Another strange thing about the door, was that since Sally had been created, the doctor had added another lock. But this lock, unlike the others, was more primitive, and much like the one on her bedroom door. And, it was on the outside. Sally often wondered why anyone, even someone trying to keep someone inside 'for their own safety,' would ever want to take the chance of getting locked _in_ their house.

Sally was looking at this door now. And was thinking, once again of what sort of things may lie behind it. Before she could get very far in her curiosity, the doctors voice echoed throughout her mind again. 'It's a matter of them and you, and you do not belong with them.' She tore her eye's from the door and resumed what she had been doing, which was sweeping Igor's footprints from the floor (Although one print was more of a slide.) about fifteen minutes passed and she eyed the door again. Sally sighed and leaned her broom against the wall. 'Stop it Sally.' She scolded herself. 'The doctor told you not to.' She leaned on the broom, still eyeing the door. "Of course…he also told me not keep sewing and I did that anyway." Sally said to herself out loud. 'This is foolish,' Sally thought after another long moment of consideration. 'It's probably locked anyway.' "Right…that's right." Sally stood and began sweeping again…this however did not last long. She paused. 'Well,' She thought. 'If it is locked, then there's no harm in checking…after all, the doctor NEVER forgets to lock the door.'

Sally finally decided she would. After all, there was no harm in checking. She walked up to the door, and slowly began going through all of the inner locks. It took her a while to figure out how most of them worked. But after going through chains, and bolts, and latches, and wires and hooks, and a whole lot of other nasty looking things, she was finally looking at the bare door. She took a deep breath, and pushed…it didn't open.

Sally sighed and leaned with her back to the door. Of course it was locked. She didn't know how she could have possibly expected anything different.

Just as she was about to stand again and put the locks back on, she heard a creak and a groan. Sally had just a few seconds to wonder where the noise was coming from, when she fell backwards as the door came crashing open. She landed on her back, and was only vaguely aware that around her, the wind was blowing, making moaning sounds as it went across the roofs of the tall and menacing buildings, and making a lovely rustling noise as it went through the tops of the tree's.

Sally felt something heavy land on her stomach. She reached out and grabbed it, sitting up to get a better look. It was a rusty old padlock…the doctor had forgotten to lock the door after all, the padlock hadn't been closed, all it had taken was a little nudge. Sally's eye's widened as she looked up at the huge door. It finally dawned on her, she was out! She turned, and sat, staggered as she surveyed the place she had been curious about since she first got a glimpse of it outside her window. Only this was different. This was nothing like watching a place from a cold and dingy bedroom, this was real. She stood by the front door for a moment…taking the place in, her heart was racing. She was finally in Halloween Town.

The Town Meeting Hall consisted of one large room lined almost wall to wall with pews. The room comfortably sat all of Halloween towns residents, with an exception to the ghosts, who were never invited (Tend to moan and groan a bit too much, made it very hard to speak.) and the large hanging tree, which sometimes stood in the back of the room offering it's branches to anyone who couldn't find a seat elsewhere. Besides them, the mayor always stood by the spot light, ready to aim it towards anyone important enough to have it set on them (Which was usually just Jack, unless someone had a message of extreme importance.) And of course the stage, where in every meeting, aside from the last one before Halloween, Jack usually occupied himself.

Tonight, he had been up there already for an hour, and was hoping that he wouldn't have to go back up anytime soon. Currently the stage was being occupied by the vampires, who were explaining why they thought the previous year had had a lower blood loss count then those before it, and how all of Halloween Town could contribute this year to help them reach their goal, and suck more blood then any year before.

Jack covered up a yawn in the back of the room. He was leaning on one of the pews, resting his chin in his palm and wishing that this night would be over. Occasionally he eyed the door longingly and wondered if anyone would noticed if he just slipped out. He figured they probably would, even if he was in the back of the room, and even if most of the residents were focusing their full attention on whoever was speaking, a lot of them tended to overreact a bit when they couldn't find him.

"That is all…" Concluded the tallest of the three vampires on the stage. Applause was heard throughout the room. Jack was brought abruptly out of his thoughts. He stood to his full height and joined in with the rest of them.

After it petered out Jack walked back up to the stage. The spotlight went on him even before he mounted the steps, and the few people who had been dozing throughout the vampires speech, sat up and gave him their full attention. "Thank you for your suggestions, I'm sure the whole town would be happy to contribute." Jack said, now wearing his regular grin. The vampires rose their thanks to him. "Now…" Said Jack, looking throughout the room. "Does anyone else, aside from the doctor have anything to say before we close tonight's meeting." There was chatter throughout the room. "Actually…" Said one of the witches. "We wanted to go over broom schedule again before the big night, didn't we girls…" There was some agreement from the other witches. "And I'm not entirely clear on the sarcophagi schedule this year…" Said a mummy in the corner. "Oh yes, that reminds me…" Shouted the mayor from his place by the spotlight. (And nearly stumbling from the ledge in the process.) "We're still short two pumpkins, for the scare from the pumpkin patch." The sound in the room seamed to have turned up, as almost everyone present shouted their agreements and concerns. Jack sighed…so much for getting out early.

"Alright…" Jack said…finding the sound had suddenly become hard to talk over. "Alright! Quiet down everyone!" Jack's regular pleasant voice had switched over to one of frustration and impatience. Everyone quieted down, sensing his mood had changed. "Now," Jack said, his voice evening out once more. "Who thinks their problem is the most important?" A lot of the Halloween town residents began to look about, then slowly half of the room raised their hands. (Or claws, or stumps, or wings, or whatever else they had in place of their hands.) Jack felt a sinking feeling in his bones…it was going to be a long night.

Jack peered around the room, deciding who was most likely to have the dullest and least important suggestions and concerns, so he could get them over with first. "Mayor…" He said standing up straight. "Why don't you come up." The mayor looked surprised for a moment then began his way down from the ledge, only to fall the rest way after getting halfway down the stairs. He made his way across the room. "Thank you Jack." Jack nodded and made his way off of the stage.

He stood in the back for a while longer, as the mayor went on about the pumpkins, before deciding he needed to get out, even if it was just for a moment. (Or even of it was just long enough to miss the rest of the mayors speech.) He waited for the right moment then stalked off quietly, slipping out the door. No one noticed. There was, after all, a reason he was the Pumpkin King.

Jack sighed in relief as the autumn wind touched his face. 'Just for a moment.' He told himself, 'I'll go back in as soon as I hear the clapping.' But after a few minutes he found himself making his way slowly towards the center of town.

By the time he had gotten far enough away from The Town Hall so that he could no longer hear the people inside, he realized he had no intention of going back anytime soon. What decided this was the absolute state of solitude and peace he found his town in, given the fact that everyone whom usually walked and crawled about, offering him praise (Or flirting with him, in a good deal of situations, and much to his displeasure.) were all at the meeting. He walked slowly across town, with his hands folded behind his back, knowing where he would finally end up.

Jack's favorite place in Halloween Town, aside from his own house, was the spiral hill which towered above a graveyard. This was the best spot in Halloween Town to see the moon, which towered above it, huge and yellow. It was also a good place to stargaze, but this was not something one could do often, given the fact that in Halloween Town, the sky was almost always covered in dark clouds. Tonight, however, Jack was in luck, for the sky was completely clear, and showed the stars which shined dully throughout the sky. Jack found himself suddenly very glad that he had snuck out of the meeting.

After Sally had finally gotten over her momentary fixation, which had seamed to have left her glued just outside the doctors front door, she had shut the giant door, and slowly lowered the catch to lock it. She didn't, however, replace the padlock, knowing that doing so would leave her in a slight disadvantage when she tried to get back in.

After that was finished Sally turned, and began to wonder where she would go. After all, she had no idea where anything was. She had actually began to consider going back into the house, when some eerie, but still somewhat lovely music began playing from somewhere very near her. Sally's curiosity won over, and she took her first shaky and nervous steps toward the sound.

The music was coming from a small group of four very strange looking creatures, standing just outside of a gate, leading into Jacks property. The group appeared to be a band. They hadn't been at the meeting because their only purpose in Halloween Town was to play, they did this all of the time, well into the night. They played outside Jack's house because they knew that out of all of Halloween towns ignorant and seemingly always preoccupied residents, Jack enjoyed and appreciated their music the best. He said it helped him think in the late hours of the night when his work kept him from sleeping. He also almost always tipped them as he walked by.

The small group watched curiously as a strange girl walked by them, shakily, she paused a moment, seaming to listen to the music, and regarded them with a great deal of interest, as though she had never seen anything quite like them before (And she had not.) In the time she was there, and it hadn't been long, the band didn't stop playing, but after she walked off, looking a little wary when they had started to pay her some interest, one of the creatures playing something that looked a bit like a warped saxophone pulled it out of his mouth long enough to say something quietly to the others. "Never seen her here before." He then returned to his playing getting a silent agreement from the other three.

Sally walked about Halloween Town feeling as though she was in a dream. It was, of course, not much different from what she had expected. It was dark, and eerie, and the buildings were made of all sorts of jagged lines, which went of into insane directions. The tops of the buildings all seamed to be crooked, leaning in all different directions, and the windows, which seamed to hurt ones eye's when considered too long where very tall and did not always follow the construction of the walls themselves. Despite this, there was still something about all of it which was somehow pleasant, the greatest thing being, that although the town was dark and creepy, it was not near as dark, dingy, and dirty as the doctors home. Next to his quarters Halloween Town was actually sort of charming. Sally found this as somewhat of a relief. After all, if the town was not as bad as the doctor had said, maybe the people weren't either.

Sally got to the center of town, where a large and sinister looking fountain sat, spraying out, not water, but some sort of slick goop, which was the greenish color of the very ill, or the very dead. Sally stood at it for a moment looking around, wondering vaguely where all of the residents of the town were. She considered this for a moment before remembering that the doctor had been going to some sort of town meeting. That meant that the whole town was probably there. Sally felt only a little disappointment, but what she mostly felt was that of relief. She wasn't sure she wanted to meet anyone just yet.

Sally sat on the fountains base for a moment and surveyed her surroundings, wondering where she should go next. She could vaguely see the a bit of the band she had passed. She looked around behind her and saw that towards the back of the town a large building was lit up, it appeared to be the only place at this hour with the lights still on. 'That must be the Town Hall.' She thought. She decided it was best to keep as far away from there as possible. She looked back from the way she came, and saw a gate which stood just beyond her own house. Where would that take her? She stood and considered how she would go about getting there without the band seeing her again, thinking this would be a bit uncomfortable. Finally she headed in that direction, trying to keep to the shadows as much as possible, and as far away from the creatures playing their instruments as she could.

This time both the saxophone player, and the base player paused in the middle of playing and regarded each other with a somewhat humored glance. "Strange girl." The sax player said. "Terrible at stalking, she could stand to take a few lessons from Jack." They resumed, getting back into the tune easily.

Sally reached the gate, and peered at it curiously, deciding whether or not it was locked. She gave it a push. It opened easily for her. She then made her away across the threshold, and found herself standing in a cemetery.

Her eye's followed the graves, which stood silhouetted in the moonlight, till they reached the oddest hill Sally had ever seen (Although considering it was the only she had ever seen this was not too difficult.) She let out a little gasp. It made a lovely spiral, which looked perfect against the magnificent large and looming yellow eye of the moon. "Beautiful." She said softly to herself. She had started to approach it, but suddenly froze, as terror crept into her heart. Against the moonlight she saw a trim figure making it's way slowly up the hill. Apparently there was someone who hadn't gone to the meeting after all. Sally quickly ducked behind a grave and watched the figure with curiosity.

He appeared to be very tall, and very thin, making his limbs stick like against the moons yellowish light. His impossibly long arms were behind his back, folded at a place where the tails of his jacket fell looking ragged and torn. There was some sort of strange wing like things sticking from his neck, but Sally could hardly make out any detail from the place where she sat. Behind him a strange small white thing bobbed and swayed about, seaming to follow him as he progressed to the top of the hill.

Sally thought that the best thing she could do at this moment was to go back home, lock the door behind her, and be back in her room before the doctor even knew she had been gone. But once again, as it had far too many times that night, already, her curiosity won out over her common sense. Sally crept closer to the hill, making sure to stay out of sight from who ever it was that was standing so silently as they gazed at the stars.

She finally came to rest at a grave that sat just at the base of the hill. From the new spot, she looked over the strange figure again. She was now close enough to identify that the strange wing like things were not coming from his neck, but appeared to be the collar of his jacket.

There was suddenly something very charming about this mans silhouette, as though it somehow belonged on that hill, being every bit as strange and mysterious and beautiful as the hill itself.

Suddenly, the man turned his head and looked her way pulling Sally out of her daze. Frightened, she ducked behind the grave, clutching her chest, where her heart had begun to beat quite irregularly. Had he seen her? A few moments passed, only when Sally decided she had gotten lucky, that he had not seen her did her heart seam to take on it's regular beat. 'That was way too close.' Sally thought to herself. 'It's time to go.' She had just started to sit up, feeling quite calm and quite ready to head back to the doctors house when she was stopped dead by a curious and pleasant voice. "Pardon me…" It spoke. "Is there any reason your hiding behind this headstone?" Sally jumped and turned quickly, she wore an expression of absolute terror. He had seen her after all. She got on her feet, almost losing her balance and gaped at him, quite unable to do much else. He took a few steps towards her, his expression changing from pleasant humor, to one she'd never seen before. Seeing he was coming closer Sally took a few hasty steps back, and made this humiliating encounter complete by falling backwards over a grave, and losing her left arm from her elbow down, as a sharp part of the grave caught her stitches and pulled them loose.

After Sally fell over the grave, Jack paused…looking at it in a puzzled manner. When he had seen her looking at him from the hill he had figured she was one of the residents. And although it was quite a bit odd for any of them to hide from him, he could still come up with a few situations where one might. Perhaps a particularly shy admirer, or one of the dead sneaking about their grave, or maybe even one of those three mischievous trick or treaters who worked under that no good Oogie Boogie, plotting up some scheme to ruin the celebration (Which they did seam to do every year.) Jack was caught a little off guard when he realized that the person behind the grave was not only someone he had never seen before, which was very odd for him, but that she was also someone who he didn't think he would forget easily. He had never seen someone so lovely before. He had started towards her, trying to apologize for surprising her, only to realize that she wasn't just startled, but completely horrified by him. After she tripped over the grave, and lost her arm, Jack just stood still for moment, and tried to figure out how he would handle this. Finally, after some consideration he stepped towards the grave.

Sally laid in the dirt with the grave towering above her for a moment, feeling absolutely foolish and incredibly stupid. She began to try and situate herself, so she could get up, only to realize that a good portion of her left arm was gone, making it very difficult to balance herself. She cursed herself for forgetting to bring thread. "Excuse me." She looked up, feeling a little of her terror ebb in again. She met the strangers gaze and for the first time since she had spotted him on the hill, got a good look at him. He was nothing like anything she had ever seen. She sometimes caught glimpses of residents on the streets, and none of them were quite like this strange figure looming over her now. From up close he looked impossibly tall. Easily over twice the side of her master, and three or four times the size of Igor. He was a skeleton, but not the sort of any she had seen before. His head was very round, and was taken up a great deal by his large eye sockets, which somehow seamed to hold emotion despite their lack of eyes. Aside from that he had a very tiny nose, and a large mouth which appeared to go across most of his face. He wore a pinstripe suit which fit him perfectly, and gave him a very charming look. Despite her fear Sally found herself absolutely absorbed in this strange skeleton man. There was something quite handsome about him.

He outstretched a very long skeletal hand towards her. "I apologize, I didn't mean to frighten you." Sally's fear, at this point had taken backseat to her embarrassment, she looked at the skeleton mans hand for a long moment before finally taking it. He pulled her up from the cemetery floor. After she was standing he bent over and gently picked her departed arm from the base of the grave. "I believe this is yours." He said, handing it to her. She took her arm from him shyly. "Thank you." She said softly. She met his gaze again, holding it for a moment before looking away in embarrassment.

Sally was suddenly reminded of where she was and regarded the man with a shameful and guilty look. "I'm sorry, I-I mean, I didn't mean to stare, I just…" He waved a dismissive hand at her. "Don't worry about it. It's not like it's the first time it's ever happened." He gave her a warm grin, creating a sort of light feathery feeling in her stomach. "Well, I mean…I've just never been here…and I…" "Really," He started again, with a sincere look on his face. "It's not a big deal. I shouldn't have frightened you…" The man regarded her with some interest. "Which reminds me, I don't believe I've ever seen you here before."

Sally felt some of her fear return. What would he say if he found out where she was from? The doctors words returned to her in a rush. This strange man seamed nice enough, quite a bit nicer then she could have ever hoped, but would that change if he knew that she didn't belong here?

Jack noticed the girls change in attitude, she had seamed, for a bleak moment, to be settling down a bit, now he could see her growing uneasy again. Perhaps, Jack thought, it would be best to not ask her very many questions…still, he had to ask at least one. "What's your name?"

Sally looked up at him, a little startled. She had expected him to demand to know where she had come from and why he had never seen her anywhere before. Instead, he was interested in her name, though she hardly knew why. "Sally." She said softly. He nodded, seaming to consider the name with a certain satisfaction, finally he smiled. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Sally. My name is Jack." He offered her his hand. Sally looked at it for a moment, utterly bewildered. Jack had begun to think she had no idea what a handshake was, when he realized that her only remaining hand, was still holding her left arm. "Oh," Jack laughed. "Sorry about that, can I help you get it back on." He motioned to her arm, smiling kindly at her. Sally could not help but return his smile. "That's alright." Sally said softly. "I left my needle and thread at home, I need to be returning anyway." Jack nodded. "If you have to, I wont keep you. It was very nice running into you Sally." Sally felt herself begin to blush. "I hope to do it again sometime." Jack gave her right hand a squeeze, in substitution for a hand shake. Sally felt a pleasant tingling feeling in her hand, where he had touched it. She felt a certain need to say something, and was searching for something that wouldn't make her feel absolutely ridiculous when she heard a sound from behind her.

A short man was walking towards them, he was a ghastly white color, and his mouth was turned down in what appeared to be the exact opposite of a smile. Upon seeing Jack, his face changed, but not in the way a regular face would, instead, his head turned completely around revealing that of joy. "JACK!" Jack's previously pleasant mood shifted as he realized he had been gone from the meeting hall for much too long. "Thank God I found you! We've been looking for you for almost an hour now!" Just as the mayor said 'we', a few other Halloween residents seamed to materialize from behind him. "Hurray we found Jack!" "Good job mayor!" "Where have you been Jack? We looked in the back of the hall and you were just gone! We were close to panic." It was enough to give Jack a dull throb in his right temple.

Sally suddenly felt very overwhelmed by the amount of people whom appeared, almost out of nowhere. She noticed Jacks attitude seamed to completely change, he had seamed very pleasant and happy, now he looked very tired and frustrated. She was kind of confused at the amount of attention he seamed to be getting from the strange people who had suddenly just appeared, but her confusion was secondary to her relief at going unnoticed by the small group.

"I apologize mayor…" Jack started tiredly. "I stepped out for a moment, I just lost track of time." The mayor nodded, just happy that they had found him. "No problem Jack, but you know we can't finish the meeting without you. The doctor still has to show you what he's created to take the place of the jack o' lanterns."

Sally regarded the mayor with interest when he mentioned Dr. Finkelstein. Then she was struck again with the idea to get back home before he returned, if he still hadn't presented his idea, he had to still be at the hall. She began to sneak away from the group, trying to remain unnoticed. After getting far enough away, she quickened her pace, and hurried back to the doctors house. This time she was quiet enough so that no one heard.

Jack was listening to the mayor go over what they had accomplished with him gone, and what they still had to go over (The latter seaming a great deal longer.) and was saying something about going over again what they had gotten over, in case he had any suggestions, when Jack looked about himself suddenly. He had nearly forgotten about Sally. Upon finding her gone, he felt a glum disappointment set itself inside him, and found himself desiring that he had sneaked off with her, and gotten away from his obligations. Instead, he followed the mayor off to the Town Hall, who was saying that this meeting may end up lasting all night due to the delay…Jack found himself wondering how the mayor could possibly sound so cheerful about something that made his head ache, and wishing, not for the first time, that he was not The Pumpkin King.

Thank you very much for your reviews. This chapter took a bit longer to post then I would have liked. I really hope it turned out alright.


	4. At The End Of A Very Long Night

This chapter may be a rather quick one, I'm going to get at least two more out of this story, and maybe more if it is so desired, but as it is I may just finish this story up soon and start on my next one

Chapter Four:

The meeting had taken far longer then Jack had thought it would. It was nearly dawn by the time they left the Meeting Hall, and Jack was feeling very sick of Halloween, and all of the people he had just spent six hours with. The mayor had been the worst, but when it got to the truly early hours of the morning Jack found that it didn't matter who got up and spoke, combined, they had all made him sick and tired of the topic of fear and frightening people and going bump in the night, or any other sort of thing like that.

The doctor had been up last, looking very much like how Jack felt. He had presented a very common Dr Finkelstein like invention that Jack knew he would have to look over himself later in order to figure it out. 'I just needed something to replace a few cackling jack o' lanterns.' Jack had thought to himself throughout the presentation. The doctor had managed to come up with something as impressive and ingenious as it was unnecessary… as usual. Thankfully, however, the doctors presentation turned out to be the quickest, which was what Jack had been counting on. (And why he had sent him up last.)

After it was all over Jack was exhausted. He stayed in the hall for at least thirty more minutes after the meeting was over in order to see everyone away. After the mayor finally left Jack found himself more then ready to get home and in to bed. He had, after all, only a few hours to sleep before he had to get up the next morning for one of their final rehearsals.

"I hope my invention was adequate for you Jack." The doctor wheeled up behind him, startling him out of a half drowse. Jack yawned.

"Yes, it was perfect doctor. Thank you again for making something on such short notice."

"Don't mention it."

"I would however like to come by in the next few days so that you can show me again how it works." Jack said, while casting a longing look at his tower.

"It wasn't too confusing for you I hope." He looked concerned, but Jack was finding it hard to believe he actually was, especially at this hour of the morning.

"No, the meeting just took a lot longer then I thought it would, it was getting a little hard to concentrate towards the end."

The doctor nodded glumly.

"Yes, but you did seam to get away for a little while, I was tempted myself to step out a bit, I'd make far too much noise I'm afraid."

That brought back all of the memories from early that evening. Jack grinned a little.

"I'm afraid I lost track of time, I only meant to step out for a moment. It was so odd, I met the strangest person."

The doctor looked up at Jack, feigning curiosity.

"Is that so? I didn't think you could meet anyone new here, you are after all the Pumpkin King."

Jack nodded.

"That's what I thought. But she was definitely like no one else I've ever met before."

Something seamed to suddenly register with the doctor. He looked up at Jack suspiciously.

"She?" The doctor asked, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

Jack nodded, casting another look in the direction of his home.

"Doctor, I don't mean to be rude, but I would like to get some sleep before sunrise." Jack said. The doctor didn't seam to be paying him any attention. Jack sighed and was very close to just leaving when the doctor addressed him.

"Jack, just one question before you go, and I am terribly sorry to keep you from your needed rest, but this girl, you say you've never seen her here before?"

"Yes." Jack answered rubbing his eyes (or where they would be if he had any.) The doctor considered this for a moment.

"Do you know this girls name?"

Jack looked at the doctor for a moment, wondering why he would want to know such a thing.

"Yes, she did tell me it, as a matter of fact…" Jack said after a moment.

"Jack." He was interrupted by the mayor, who was standing behind him. He had apparently turned around and headed right back to the meeting hall. Jack found this very discouraging. The doctor seamed to share his opinion, for he was giving the mayor a most ugly look.

"What can I do for you mayor?" Jack asked.

"I can't get those pumpkins out of my mind, I was just wondering if you had any lying about you house anywhere." The mayor said, looking at Jack hopefully.

"I'm sure I do, I'll go look now…" Jack said. Upon seeing the mayors look he added hastily; "…and bring them in the morning ." Jack sighed and turned to the doctor. "I must be on my way doctor, I'll come by sometime in the next couple of days, as soon as my schedule allows it." Jack turned on his heel before either of them could say anything to delay him any longer from his bed, and walked off towards his tower, feeling very glad to be away from everyone.

For the first time that week Jack found himself in a perfect sleeping mood. Of course, being awake all night, listening to people talk on and on about things they'd already thoroughly covered did tend to do that to someone. He shut his lights off and changed into his night clothes.

Before finally settling himself in his bed he looked out towards the giant moon that loomed over the town, as he did often these days, and wondered, not for the first time, by any means, what he was doing there. For the last twenty years his once seeping excitement had been on a slow decline. He found himself growing less and less enthusiastic of his holiday and the people in this town every year. At first he thought it would go away. After all, how could everyone in town seam to enjoy it more and more with every passing year, and he, Jack, the PUMPKIN KING for goodness sake, seamed to be the only one who questioned his life here. He turned this over and over again in his mind, but it came to no avail. At the end of the day he still found himself wallowing in his own self pity and sorrow.

He was also horribly lonely. It was a strange thing. He was practically drowning in praise and adoration. He couldn't get five minutes to himself. At times he found himself going mad with all of the attention he got, and yet he still longed for companionship…REAL companionship. Not the sort that he got all of the time, where people constantly showered him with compliments. Or the sort of friendly nonsense that people showed him. Acting as though they were interested, only to be seen with favor. Dr Finkelstein was a good example of this. Although Jack acted naïve and ignorant he was easily able to tell when someone was pretending with him. He knew that the doctor was a bitter, anti social, uncaring, and very unlikable person. Just because the doctor acted kindly towards him every time he was around him didn't mean Jack couldn't see the truth in his eyes and actions, or in the way he acted and looked at others. Things like this really bothered Jack. He had no real friends in Halloween Town. Just a bunch of admirers, people who thought they needed him. Jack knew as good as anyone in his position, when you reached a certain place where you stood out over others, and when you found yourself at the top…you almost certainly found loneliness up there along with any sort of fame, and joy became a very infrequent thing.

Jack sighed and walked over to his bed, thinking that maybe he wasn't going to sleep so well after all. He fluffed his pillow and laid down. He found the best way to sleep these days was to put his mind off of anything Halloween related, which tended to be very difficult in his position. On this night, however he found it quite easy. He was asleep almost instantly. His last clear thought drifted around in his skull a little before turning into the confused thoughts of dreams and the place between asleep and awake.

'Sally is a very pretty name, very fitting, and very uncommon for Halloween town.'

When the doctor got back it was nearly five o'clock. He had wheeled the whole way trying to convince himself that he had remembered to lock the door. He had, after all, never forgotten before. He had just nearly believed it when he finally arrived at his door and found the old rusted padlock he used to seal the catch lying on the ground. This worried him. This did not, however, necessarily mean that Sally had gotten out. He had been sure his talk with her the previous night had gotten through. She had spent most of the day moping around. Still, he didn't like the look of the situation. And the fact that she may have met Jack after escaping, rather then anyone else in the whole town worried him more. Jack was the sort of person that didn't make you want to stay inside, if you met him on a good day, and when he was not trying to scare you witless .He was the sort of person that might just inspire you to leave again, and again, and maybe eventually for good. The doctor did not care for this…no, not at all.

When he got into the door he found himself in a much improved entry way. Sally had finished cleaning it. The doctor found this could be either good or bad news. Good because it meant she had been busy for a little while, but bad because it meant she had been right near the door, and had the chance to leave it at any time.

"We'll see." The doctor whispered to himself. "We'll see if you've been out."

He wheeled himself up to sally's room, grumbling to himself.

Sally had found sleep very difficult. When she had gotten home it had been eleven o'clock. It had take her at least an hour to get her arm back on. Which she found was incredibly difficult to do with only one hand. In order to sew up her left arm she had ended up having prop it up on a table and lean against it. Even then, with her spool between her teeth, and her right fingers working the needle, she had gotten it on very poorly. It was at least the right way, and she could move it, but it functioned with about half of the efficiency of the other.

She had then cleaned the rest of the entry room. She had been in a fairly good mood at the time, and barely concentrating on her work, having far too much to think about. But she still had gotten the place looking better, and figured since the doctor didn't like for it to look too good, she didn't need to try too hard anyway.

When the doctor got home, Sally was sitting by her window, which was cracked open slightly, allowing a pleasant breeze to drift about her. And, to her immense pleasure, she found she could here the zombie like musicians playing from the Pumpkin Kings gate, She had never noticed before because she rarely ever opened her window, the doctor did not seam to approve of fresh air.

Sally had absently picked up her brush and was combing through her long red hair when she heard her bedroom door open. Because of her distraction, she hadn't heard him approach.

"I see you've developed a few nasty habits since I've been gone Sally." When she turned around she saw he was very angry. The last of the nights exhilaration left her in a rush. It left only a small dread, slowly growing inside her.

"I wanted a bit of fresh air." Sally said, her voice sounding quite a bit stronger then she had expected it to.

"Close the window Sally, and find a comfortable position on your bed." Sally tried to ignore the rising alarm she felt in her senses.

"I'm not tired." She said absently.

"Sally, lay down, or you will wind up dissembled with your torso and head lying somewhere on the floor of my lab room and you limbs scattered throughout the rest of the house." Sally closed the window and sat on her bed quietly.

"Good girl." The doctor said wheeling towards her.

"What is my punishment for this time sir?" Sally asked knowing exactly what was in store for her and precisely what it was for.

"You've been too curious Sally, let this be a lesson to you. The next time you feel the desire to go exploring, just think about the consequences. Find a comfortable position now, you'll be here for a while."

And with that Sally looked on with mounting horror as the doctor pulled the stitches from the arm she had just repaired, and them moved on to her other limbs, dissembling her piece by piece.

Short chapter, yes, lousy ending, very much so. However, I have decided to do one or two more chapters then I originally planned. Especially in light of this very unfortunate one. I'm very grateful for the reviews I've been getting. The next chapter should come shortly.


	5. The Other Side Of The Gate

First, I'd like to apologize if this chapter comes out poorly in contrast to the others, I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted it to be about, and feel that I may have been cramming towards the end in my desire to finish it.

Secondly, I'd like to thank you for all of your reviews.

I should have at least one more chapter coming, but I almost feel that there's still so much more to say, that it couldn't possibly fit in just one chapter…so…we'll see.

Chapter Five

The Other Side Of The Gate

By the time her punishment ended, Sally had gone nearly out of her mind with boredom. When the doctor did finally come back in, she was not quite sure how much time had passed. She had been laying in her bed without her arms and legs for hours. All she was aware of was that it had been nearly dawn when he had taken her apart, and since then the day had gotten bright as the jack o' lantern sun rose, and then dark again as it began to set. It was quite dark when Sally heard the doctors mechanic chair. She looked up hopefully as he entered the room.

"Alright Sally, Do you think that was enough time? Or should I leave you here for another twenty hours?"

'Twenty hours!' Sally thought frantically, wondering how she could have possibly lasted that long in this retched room, not being able to do anything.

"No sir."

"So you've learned your lesson, then?"

"Yes." Sally answered.

When he had first removed her limbs she _had_ been sorry for her actions, but by keeping her here for twenty hours without any way to move or do anything, she found her shame took backseat to her longing for freedom, or even to walk about her room a bit, or sit up. She hoped this didn't show in her face or voice.

The doctor examined her carefully, and it must not of because he pulled her limbs from the wooden box by her bed and began to sew them back onto her.

"You know this was for your own good Sally." He was saying, as he worked the needle about her body. "Someday you'll be glad I kept you from the outside world. It is a truly awful place." Sally was barely listening, she was too eager to get out of her bed and stretch her legs.

When the doctor was finished he put the needle and thread aside, and fixed Sally with a very stern gaze.

"It's late Sally, perhaps you should get started on dinner." Sally sat up, and nodded.

"And Sally, you have officially lost all privileges when it comes to sewing. I don't expect to see you ever carrying a needle. Is that understood?" Sally nodded again, this time showing some of her impatience. The doctor's eye's narrowed.

"After dinner you will go straight to bed, and there will not be one window opened in this house from here on." Sally was now all but bursting with a longing to stretch her re attached legs. "Do you understand?" The doctor finished.

"Yes sir, I'm sorry." Sally said quietly with a quick glance at the doctor to see if he believed her.

While wheeling out of the room, the doctor said; "Very well. You may get dinner going now. I'll be in the library. When you are finished send Igor to come and get me." He turned sharply as Sally stood up letting out a sigh of relief.

"And Sally, one more thing, from now on, you are not allowed to leave your room without my saying so." And with that he continued his way to the library.

Sally stood and watched him for a while. At that time it was a little hard to feel any disappointment or concern about his recent restrictions, given the fact that having her limbs re-attached felt so good, but it didn't take long for it to set in, and by the time she had gotten used to her legs and had begun the doctors supper she started to wonder how she could possibly stay in her dark begrimed room as often as would be required if the doctor had really meant what he had said.

This distracted her so much she had to start dinner over several times due to all of the mistakes she was making. Twice she had placed Rosemary in her stew instead of galangal, she had completely forgot to put in the devils claw, and at least once, to her horror, she had almost poisoned the doctor with Deadly Night Shade. That last time had been a close one, she had only noticed when the stew began to smell just a little more awful then usual. She was on her fourth try when Igor dragged himself in and gave her a very distressing look given the current circumstances. It was one of impatience.

"The doctor wants to know if your done yet?" He asked. (Or sort of wheezed, I suppose.) Sally flashed him a look of embarrassment.

"Not quite." She answered, sort of trying to hide the stew, so he wouldn't see just how much longer she had to go.

"How much longer?" Igor asked, while the eye that didn't seam to be off set tried to peer around her. Sally became defensive.

"I need just a bit more time." She said, blocking his view. Igor gave her a very stupid look that always managed to make her feel claustrophobic, reminding her of the sort of company she had to share each and every day. His dense look was replaced with one of suspicion before he finally hobbled off to report to the doctor.

Sally sighed in frustration. She tried harder to focus this time, but was unaware that in the course of her conversation she had accidentally switched pots, and instead of working on the one she had been, had began adding to one of the ones she had set aside. As she added a little wormwood to the pot, the smell of Deadly Night Shade was barely noticeable.

The doctor had been tweaking his machine a bit when Igor entered to report that Sally seamed to be taking more time then usual on dinner. The doctor had dismissed him, telling him to keep a close eye on her for the rest of the night. He was too busy to make too big of a deal about her slow work at the moment. He had discovered a flaw in his plans, and was currently trying to work it out before Jack visited in the next day or two and found it out for himself. He would not let anyone in on his own mistakes, and did not care for anyone to know about them, especially the Pumpkin King.

The machine he had made was suppose to create truly horrific creatures. They were creatures with no brains, true, but creatures that appeared alive, and as most of Halloween Town was great proof of, you didn't really need a brain to scare someone. The doctor grinned to himself at this thought. Reveling in the fact that he was probably the smartest being in all of town. Even Jack, who everyone in town seamed to admire and worship couldn't get his tactics without having it explained to him a second time. True, Jack did at least to have some wits about him, but at the end of the day he still amounted to no different then any of the others; a mindless ghoul living for the thrill of this truly ridiculous holiday year after year. His enthusiasm was only drowned out by the rest of the towns, who always acted like they hadn't celebrated Halloween just the year before and for hundreds of years before that, as though their tiny minds could comprehend nothing but what they seamed to be there for.

The doctor plugged in the machine to see if he had gotten the tics out of it. Earlier, he had made a giant snake, but it had seamed defective, because although it was rather suiting, it hadn't listened to a word he said, and it seamed to develop a taste for just about everything he had in his lab. (He had let it loose after it had tried to swallow Igor whole, figuring the dimwitted residents of Halloween town could find…some sort of use for it.)

He went to throw the switch, when Igor shuffled up to him a second time and then stood by a table with several bones strewn about it.

"Yes Igor?"

"She's finished master."

"Did you send her up to her room?" The doctor said, pulling the gloves he had been wearing from his fingers.

"Yes, she's there now master."

"Good Igor." The doctor said, removing a bag of treats from the corner and tossing one towards Igor, who caught it excitedly.

"You can go now." The doctor said.

After Igor left the doctor turned back to his machine, then decided he would save his experiment for later, he was starved.

Deadly Night Shade does not take a long time to react. The doctor had finished his stew, and had gotten down to the lab, only to suddenly become very tired. When he had gotten to his machine, he was very near to a faint, which disturbed him. The only thing he could think of, that could possibly cause this sort of trouble for him was the food. Sally must have added something that had gone over, or perhaps he was allergic to something. With this thought in his mind he fell into a deep sleep. On a normal person this would have been the deepest sleep one could fall in, but given the fact that the doctor was already dead, he just dropped off into a coma like state, that only the very deceased can achieve.

Sally was quite unaware of this. She was sitting in her room staring out once more towards the tower. She wasn't paying much attention to it, her thoughts were on other things on this early morning. The most reoccurring thought, that she constantly tried to push away was 'how do I get out of here.' She had already gotten in enough trouble, thoughts like this could be dangerous.

Sally's concentration was brought to an abrupt end when she heard her door swing open. She turned around expecting the doctor, instead she found herself facing Igor, who looked a little angry and a little worried.

"You poisoned master!" Igor said, pointing an accusing finger at her. Sally narrowed her eye's at Igor, trying to process what he had said.

"Poisoned?" Sally asked, thinking he must have made a mistake and said something wrong…or perhaps that he had meant the doctor hadn't liked her cooking that evening and had used the word poisoned as an insult only for Igor to misunderstand.

"Dead…." Igor said. "Dead…dead…dead…" He was shouting in the room, and making Sally cringed back.

"Of course he's dead" Sally interrupted him before he could say the word again. "He's always dead."

"Come see yourself." Igor said, giving her a truly nasty look. He dragged himself off down, obviously expecting her to follow him to the laboratory. Sally obliged after a moment, now filling with a kind of ill dread…what did he mean she poisoned him? How could she have done that? Sally stopped suddenly, her eye's widening. Had she given him some of the deadly night shade? She felt a little terror creep in at the thought. What if she had? What if he really was poisoned…or really was dead…or…whatever the equivalent of dead was when you already were. She resumed following Igor, this time with more reluctance, hoping that she had not done what she thought she might have.

When they got to the lab, Sally was all but trembling, and looked rather guilty, so that even if it had been an accident, one could almost still look at her and easily accuse her of doing it on purpose.

The doctor was right by his table, obviously not conscious.

"See, killed him!" Igor said, once again with an accusing note in his voice.

Sally crept closer, in her chest her heart had stopped. She got close enough to hear that he was still breathing and let out a sigh of relief. The doctor was sleeping. She turned around to inform Igor of this, but he was gone. From across the room she heard him scream at her.

"Won't kill me too!" And then she was bathed in darkness as the rooms heavy door shut, and then locked. Sally stood in the silence for a long time, fiddling with her fingers. If the doctor woke up and found her in there he would be furious. She wasn't ever suppose to go into his lab. She looked around frantically hoping to find another way out. All there was was the window. It let in only a little of the early morning light. Sally tiptoed towards it, trying not to make a lot of sound, and sat in one of the rogue dining chairs, that had been brought back here probably for the purpose of one of the doctors previous experiments. She waited for the sun to rise, so that she might get a better look at her surroundings.

Like every morning, there was an irritating hammering on his front door, which any normal person would probably chose to ignore. This was followed by a voice, enhanced by a mega phone.

"C'mon Jack! Rehearsal starts in twenty minutes!" The mayors voice drifted up to him. This was followed by the shriek of his door bell, which the mayor pulled three times straight. Jack sat up and pulled his cap off angrily.

"Alright, alright mayor…" He said under his breathe before getting up and going to his window. He threw the window opened and peered out into the faint morning light.

"I'm up mayor! I'll be down in a second!" Jack yelled, putting a stop to all of the noise the mayor was making. He closed the windows and hurriedly dressed into his pinstripe suit. He was heading towards the front door when he slapped his forehead, making a sound of frustration.

"The pumpkins!" Jack said, between his teeth. He had nearly forgotten. He peered around the room, seeing a couple in the corner. After scooping them up he headed down to meet the mayor and start another very long day.

To Sally, shapes in the room were becoming visible, as the pumpkin sun began to rise. She peered over towards the doctor, but he seamed to be sleeping soundly. Still, she wasn't sure how much longer that would last. She let out a long sigh, before looking up at the window again, observing it a little more closely. There were hinges on it…if she could get up there then…well it would be a tight fit, but… Sally decided to give it a try anyway. She stood up on the old wooden chair to see if she could reach the tiny window, but it seamed just a bit too far off. Sally sat back down, thinking. She looked around the room to see if she could find anything that would help her. Finally she settled on a few large books she found on the doctors table. Getting to work she stacked them slowly on one another, using only the ones that seamed steady and were not too worn. She could not help but feeling that this was a lousy idea. Still, maybe it would work. Sally climbed up the chair onto the books, and found she could reach the window. She leaned out so that she might reach the little knob that opened it. On her third attempt she heard a click, and the window swung open.

'Alright,' She thought to herself. 'I'll get out and go in the front door, and I'll be up in my room before the doctor even-' Her thoughts were cut off when the books she was standing on gave out underneath her. She let out a gasp as she went crashing onto the floor along with the books and a few things she had managed to knock off of the doctors table while falling down. At least one thing broke to pieces. Sally squeezed her eyes shut, peering at the doctor after a while, only to find he was still sleeping. She had been holding her breathe, now letting it out in a sigh of relief.

Sally stood back up, and after examining the window decided she may be able to get to it without the books, if she stood on her toes and pulled herself up, and even if she couldn't it didn't hurt to try. As far as she was concerned she was already in a lot of trouble. She got back up on the chair and grabbed at the window, and was immediately sure that she was not going to be able to pull herself up. She was after all a rag doll, and had absolutely no upper arm strength. She had just about given up when she heard voices from outside.

"What was all that noise?" One of them was saying in a very nasally voice.

"Is that you doctor?" Another one said, this time in a very deep and somewhat mournful voice.

There was a sound of leaves crushing under their fallen footsteps, which stopped when they reached the window. Sally held her breath for a second time, and closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

"What are you trying to get out your window for?" One of them asked, as a shadow fell over the light that had been shining in. Sally started to try and pull her hands back without making a sound when on of them was abruptly grabbed. She was being yanked up.

"This isn't the doctor." The one with the nasally voice said.

"Who is it?" Sally felt another of them grab her arm, and then she felt the sunlight touch her face. She opened her eyes. In front of her stood the group of creatures who she had been listening to play their instruments two nights before. They looked at her curiously.

"It's that girl from the other night." The saxophone player said to the others.

"So it is…" One of the others said.

"What were you trying to get out the window for?" The sax player asked looking at Sally, waiting for an answer.

Sally had stood silently throughout this time, and had become very uncomfortable. Finally she just sort of wondered towards her door, leaving the group to look at each other in a confused manner. She reached out to pull at the knob.

"It's locked." One of them called behind her.

"It's always locked." Another added

Sally tried it anyway, just to be sure and found they were right. She sighed, walking back down the steps.

"What's wrong." That largest of the group asked, and then in not getting a response added; "Can't you talk?"

"I need to get back inside." Sally said exasperatedly. More concerned now with her position then with what any of the towns members thought of her.

"But you just tried to get out." A head that seamed to be in the base players instrument pointed out. "What do you want to get back in for?" he asked.

Sally ignored him. She sat on the bottom step beneath the door and rested her head in her hands.

The band members looked at each other in a confused manner. Why was this strange girl so upset? They almost never saw anyone in Halloween Town who acted forlornly. Everyone was usually in fine spirits, with an exception to the mayor who changed back in forth between joyous and retched constantly, and Jack, who in the past ten or twenty years seamed to be in such a state more and more often. One of the band members was stricken with an idea. He walked towards the girl.

"I'll bet Jack has a key if you'd ask him, unless the doctors a special case, Jack almost always has a key to anywhere."

"Yeah," one of the others said excitedly. "Jack has the skeleton key to the town."

Sally looked up at the mention of Jacks name, regarding the few zombie like men without much fear for the first time.

"Jack?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Sure!" One of them said, seaming to warm up a little. "He's rehearsing now, but I bet he won't mind to take a break for this."

For a moment Sally actually considered going to find that elegant and mysterious skeleton man she had met two nights before, and ask him for the key, if for no better reason then to see him again. Then, reality set in and her mood, which had been improving began to falter. If she asked Jack for the key to the town he'd probably want to either follow her so that he could get it back directly after, or at least wonder what she wanted it for…and if she told him where she came from, and that she was created by Dr Finkelstein then he may not want to have anything to do with her after that. She after all, didn't really fit in with this town. Also, if the whole town was in rehearsal, then there was a good chance the Pumpkin King was there too, and the last thing she wanted was to be seen and get in trouble with him. She hunched her shoulders, growing forlorn once more, much to the bands confusion and dismay.

The members of the band looked at each other and shrugged.

"Suit yourself." One of them said.

"But if you change your mind he should be in the graveyard near the center of town right now…behind the black gate in case your wondering." The group trudged back to where they usually stood, and once again began to play.

Sally sat for a while, and listened to them, weighing her options. Jack had seamed like a nice enough guy so that maybe he wouldn't ask too many questions if she just asked to borrow the key. It was either that or wait for the doctor to wake up and discover her sitting by the front door when he had just told her the night before that she was not so much allowed to leave her room without him saying so. It was this thought that finally got her moving. She did not want to find out what the punishment was like for getting caught outside the house a second time.

When she got to the center of town she was in a better mood. She found she enjoyed the town quite a bit during the day. Also, thankfully, she had gotten lucky a second time and found herself pretty much alone.

It wasn't hard to find the graveyard the musicians had been talking about. From over there she could hear tons of voices, and a bustle of activity. Sally wondered towards the gate uncertainly, climbing the steps and curling her tiny hands over the black metal bars. There were tons of people inside. Sally looked about them with longing and fear. Part of her still wanted to fit in with them, and be on the other side of the gate sharing their enthusiasm for this Holiday that she just couldn't seam to grasp. Where as the other part of her that watched these people as they talked and rehearsed and did the things they were meant to do year after year, understood just what the doctor had meant when he had told her she didn't belong. She was obviously nothing like these people. She could tell that just by looking at them.

Inside she saw tons of different sorts of creatures, but they still all had at least one thing in common; they, obviously understood what Halloween was all about. There were a group of strange creatures in the corner, all with their dark hair pulled back against their skulls and capes that hid their entire bodies and most of their neck with large collars. She saw women, but none even coming close to what she looked like. These women had stuck out hair, three had broomsticks and pointy hats, one was very large with holes in her flowery dress, and several others went off into far more obvious oddities so that you could barely even tell they were women. (Sally knew that although it didn't really seam to be so to her, here, that was what was attractive.) All around the creatures got odder and odder; a large man with an axe in his head, a hairy creature walking on two legs, a tiny bluish creature that seamed to walk on it's wings, a clown like creature on a unicycle who was laughing horribly, all of them so obviously and entirely different from her. She stared at them, a feeling deep sadness well up inside of her. She couldn't go in there. She couldn't find Jack and ask him for a key. He had been nice, but that didn't mean he was always understanding, and she didn't want to see what happened if she upset the whole town. She had been with the doctor for so long, after all, that she could almost guess what sort of chaos doing so would create.

Sally left her place at the gate and walked slowly back to the fountain. She sat on its base and stared out towards her house, thinking about how much she wished she were inside her room, away from these people who she didn't fit with. She was feeling completely lost, like she had wondered out of her own world and into theirs, and hardly noticed that she wasn't alone anymore.

"Sally?" Came a voice from behind her.

Sally turned slowly, surprised at being addressed, and felt a little embarrassed when she saw Jack standing on the other side of the fountain looking at her with his own expression of surprise.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked walking towards her.

Sally fumbled for a reason, after Jack sat beside her placing three pumpkins on the fountain and giving her his full attention, she lost what she was she had been thinking about.

"I was just…" Sally said softly, looking away from his face, and to her embarrassment, blushing a little. "Um…" She was fiddling with her fingers. Jack gave her a strange look, which at least for that moment seamed to unlock her tongue.

"I needed to find you," she started. "- and ask you if I could borrow your key." She said quickly so as not to lose confidence.

"My key?" Jack asked, for a moment not getting what she was saying at all. Sally's blush deepened.

"Your skeleton key." Sally added softly. Understanding broke out on Jacks face.

"Oh, of course." He said, a smile forming on his lips (Or it would have been if he had lips.) He reached into his coat, fumbling around for a moment, then pulled a large rusty key in the shape of a skeleton from it. He handed it to her.

"May I ask what for?" He asked, as she took it from him thankfully. Sally began to try and think up an excuse, and her discomfort and reluctance must have been obvious because after a moment Jack interrupted her thoughts saying;

"Never mind, you don't have to tell me anything. I usually just ask to make sure the person I'm borrowing it out to isn't going to use it to get into someone else's house and get them angry, but I don't think you seam like the person who would ever do that, so I just won't worry about it." He said, giving her a warm smile that she felt she could almost melt under.

They both sat in silence for a moment. Sally was looking about trying to think of something to say to him. Finally, she came up with something, but was a little wary to ask it, hoping it wouldn't make her sound too strange or different.

"Jack?" She asked quietly, bringing herself to actually look him in the face. Jack met her gaze to show he was listening.

"Why do you…I mean, why do we celebrate Halloween?" Jacks face changed for a moment, making Sally uncomfortable.

Jack looked at Sally in confusion, and surprise. That was the last question he ever expected being asked from anyone in Halloween Town. After a while when he got over his first surprise he found himself in a position that embarrassed him. He couldn't answer. He was the Pumpkin King, the one person in Halloween Town who should know this sort of thing, and should be able to answer these sort of questions if they ever came up, and he couldn't answer!

"Well," Jack started, picking up one of the pumpkins from beside him and running his long skeletal fingers over its surface. "It's…it's like…" Jack sighed and an expression of frustration crossed his face. He wasn't used to being put into this sort of position, and he most certainly was not used to fumbling for any sort of answer, being completely confidant most of the time. Sally gave him a look of distress. Finally Jack came up with a sort of sorry answer.

"We celebrate it…to scare people." Jack said simply, knowing it showed in his face that he knew his explanation was pathetic.

Sally felt a little disappointed. Her eyes fell from his gaze.

"Oh…so that's all then." She said softly. "Why do we like scaring people so much?" She asked, this time not really expecting to get any sort of answer. She heard Jack sigh.

"That's just what the holiday is about…it's suppose to be fun." He said. Sally looked back up at him.

"For us, or for the people we're suppose to scare?" Jack folded his hands, and appeared to think about this for a moment.

"For both, I suppose. But the holidays not really for us. We're just responsible for it every year. Life's no fun without a little scare." Jack said, giving Sally a faint smile. Sally smiled back, thinking over what he had said.

"So they do have fun?" She asked.

"Well, I suppose some of them don't, but I suppose its alright if it's just once a year." (When he said some of them don't, Jack was thinking of the few unfortunate souls which he scared a countless amount of times. Some of them, he felt probably had a different view of Halloween.)

Sally felt a little better as she thought about this. Maybe the holiday wasn't all that hard to get after all.

Seeing that Sally looked a little more satisfied then she had, Jack felt a little relief set in, and hoped he didn't have to answer too many more questions. He was feeling sort of weary towards his holiday, and felt that he was perhaps not the best person to ask about it at this time.

Sally looked up again with a question in her eyes.

"Jack, does anyone here ever get tired of Halloween?"

Jack looked at her for a long moment, and Sally saw an almost sad look spread across his face. It vanished almost instantly when he smiled.

"No…" He said with a sigh. "I don't think anyone here gets tired of Halloween, in fact, they seam to be more and more enthusiastic about it each and every year." His voice held some contempt. Sally looked away for a moment, gazing at a dead looking tree by the wall in front of them.

"Is it because of the Pumpkin King?" Sally asked quietly. As she did her eyes, looked briefly towards the large tower, which was still visible from this distance. She was aware of Jack looking at her. When she met his gaze he was wearing a very strange expression.

"Pardon me?" He asked, his voice carrying a note of confusion.

"The Pumpkin King, he's had the title for two hundred years now? Every year Halloween gets more and more frightening under his leadership." She began to hesitate at the end of her explanation. Had she said something wrong? By the look on Jacks face she decided she must have.

"Is that wrong?" She asked alarmed. Jacks face cleared a little.

"No." He said after a moment. "I guess not. Although I doubt the people of Halloween Town would notice if Halloween got worse or better. Their enthusiastic about it no matter what." Sally nodded, still feeling a little uncomfortable. She had begun to wonder if she had said something inappropriate, or if she was allowed to talk about the Pumpkin King at all. She snuck a look up at Jack. He wasn't looking so strangely anymore, but seamed to be deep in some troubled thought.

"Did I say something…something wrong?" Sally asked a little uncomfortably. Jack looked at her, and after a moment his face broke out in a. amused and truly beautiful smile.

"No it's just, well I didn't think anyone wouldn't know…" Jack paused. "You see, I'm…" He was interrupted.

"Jack, there you are…c'mon we're waiting to start rehearsal." The mayor was standing behind them. He was wearing his grinning face, and barely paying Sally any mind at all, except to cast a quick look at her, that didn't suggest even the slightest recognition.

"Sorry, I'm coming." Jack said. He turned back to Sally, motioning to the key she still held in her hand.

"You can return that whenever you like." He stood, gathering his pumpkins. His smile had faded, and Sally once again got that sense of mounting frustration and dismay in his behavior.

"I'll see you later Sally." He called back as he followed the mayor into the graveyard, leaving her at the fountain, watching after him. After a while, she stood and headed back to her house, hoping that the doctor was not awake, and that she could sneak back to her room this time, unnoticed.

Jack paused at the gate, and looked back at Sally before entering into the graveyard. He examined her with a deep curiosity. She was so much different then anyone else in town. She had an air about her that suggested that she really hadn't been there for very long, and didn't seam to know anything about Halloween Town, despite obviously living there. He had only seen her twice, and she had no idea he was the pumpkin king…he had a feeling that she hadn't even really known what Halloween was for very long. Who was this girl? Jack decided that in time he would probably find out, until then, she made a much more interesting conversationalist then anyone else in town. The fact that she didn't really know much about this holiday, perhaps was part of it, but also, there was just something different about her, something that Jack couldn't quite put his finger on, that made her the most interesting person he had ever met. And she was beautiful. Of course he had noticed that, not like the other women in this town at all.

Jack sighed and followed the mayor into the graveyard. He got a warm greeting from everyone inside, but was barely paying attention to any of them. He had a feeling his mind would be a little preoccupied for the rest of the day.

Wow, I didn't expect this one to be long at all. It's actually longer then chapter three. By the way, if there is any confusion to this, whenever I have a double space between dialogue, it means I'm changing one characters perspective to another's.

Thank you for your reviews.


	6. The Pumpkin King

This isn't the last chapter, like I hoped it would be. I could have made it longer and made it the last chapter but decided against it. Instead I left you with a cliffhanger…sorry. I'm eager to finish this story because I have so many others on my mind that I'd like to start.

Once again I apologize for my writing. I'm running into story problems. I hope to update soon with the final chapter.

Chapter Six

The Pumpkin King

Sally got lucky. Not only did Jack's key work on the doctors large door (And she had been rather nervous it wouldn't.) but when she crept into the entrance room, and tiptoed up the stairs to her bedroom she didn't see any trace of the doctor or Igor.

She shut her bedroom door with a sigh of relief, and collapsed into her bed, feeling she could use a decent nights sleep, even if it was during the day.

Sally had been in that place that one often achieves between sleep and wake, where the voices and noises in your head are both real and imaginary, when she thought she heard a noise from outside her hallway. She was going to just ignore it but when it came again, she came out of her peaceful state of unawareness and sat up just as her door opened, and the doctor rolled in. For a moment Sally thought he was angry, but she soon saw it was more like exhaustion and pain. Dr Finkelstein looked her over.

"Have you been sleeping all night?" The doctor asked, suspicion edging into his voice. Sally swallowed and tried not to look guilty.

"Yes master, you just woke me up." She said softly. Reveling at how close it had been. A few more seconds later and she would have been caught. The doctor looked as though he was considering what she had said. After a while he grunted and turned his chair around.

"It's late in the morning, get out of bed and start breakfast. I expect you won't be sleeping in like this again?"

"No sir." Sally said, not trying too hard to hide the relief in her voice. She had not been discovered! She decided she could stay awake a little longer, despite her weariness, at the moment just glad that she had actually gotten away with leaving the house this time.

The doctor was on his way down the stairs when he called back in a somewhat whining voice;

"And make me something with a painkiller in it, I have the _worst_ migraine."

Sally had gotten through the rest of the day in a fair manner. But come noon she was exhausted. Because of the doctors lousy mood, probably due to his current physical condition he was having one of his worst days and taking it out on her. It seamed to Sally that the doctor was giving her a lot of work on purpose, and that perhaps, he did blame her at least partially for his unconsciousness the night before. Sally was pretty sure, however, that he knew nothing of the deadly night shade, which she was now sure she had accidentally slipped him after checking for herself while cleaning the dishes, if he had known about it, she would have probably found herself in a lot worse of a state then she was in now. (Probably in a state of pieces scattered randomly around the doctors lab.)

When the doctor finally could literally think of nothing else for her to do, he sent her to cook dinner, then said she could retreat to her room. This relieved her.

Sally was in the kitchen working on the doctors meal when her sense of relief and the decent mood she had developed since talking to Jack that morning was torn from her unexpectedly.

This occasion was one of many in the next some thirty hours that would make up the worst day or so of her short life so far in Halloween Town. (Of course there were several worse days to come, but that would seam to be in a different life, when Sally no longer really cared so much for the doctors rules and her concerns would lie more in Jack.)

"I know what you did, Sally." Sally turned slowly as the voice of the doctor, now definitely angry cut through the rooms somewhat pleasant silence.

Behind her the doctor sat in his wheelchair, gazing at Sally vehemently. Behind the doctor, hiding in the safety of the doctors chair, Igor stared at Sally with some satisfaction. The doctor reached into one of the pockets in his coat and pulled out an object that Sally had to squint at in order to see it clearly. When she did, she found the already sinking sensation in her breast grow deeper. The doctor was holding Jack's key, which flickered lightly in the somewhat lit room.

"You've been talking to people you shouldn't be, and doing bad things Sally."

Sally's eyes were wide with fright and a growing guilt.

"But," She stammered. "I didn't mean to…" The doctor cut her off.

"Quiet when I am talking to you! How many times have you been out Sally?" Sally bit her lip, trying to keep her emotions down, which were already stressed enough with the lack of sleep. She tried to keep an even voice as she spoke, but to no avail, her voice was shaking badly.

"Two times sir, but I didn't mean to the last time, I was trying to get back in…"

"QUIET!" The doctor yelled. "You've poisoned me Sally, you didn't even know what it would do to me, but you did it anyway. Is that any way to treat the person who is responsible for giving you life!" Sally was in tears now.

"But I didn't try to! I didn't know I did! I swear." She pleaded.

"And this!" The doctor said, ignoring her, as he held up Jack's skeleton key. "This is unacceptable. Where did you get this Sally?" Sally was weeping openly. The doctor did not seam to care.

"Someone gave it to me." She said softly, not mentioning Jack's name for two reasons. One, she didn't want the doctor to go to Jack and for Jack to find out that he had helped one of the doctors creation to break back into his house against his orders, and two, because she didn't want Jack to get into any sort of trouble. She wasn't sure what sort of authority the doctor had in town, but if he really wanted something taken care of she was sure he could go to someone higher, like the mayor or the Pumpkin King, and that could get both her and Jack in trouble. She didn't want Jack to get into trouble for something he didn't know he was doing.

"It doesn't matter whether you give me his name or not. I know who this belongs to." Sally lowered her eyes and bit her bottom lip.

"It was my fault, he didn't know." She said softly, while wiping her forearm across her eye's to get rid of the tears forming in them.

"As I assumed so." The doctor wheeled towards her.

"Please don't get him into any trouble sir." Sally whispered. Her eyes meeting the doctors dark glasses. "It was all my fault." The doctor examined her carefully.

"Him? How could I?" The doctor paused in the middle of what he was saying, as he did his eyes narrowed.

He was suddenly struck by two ideas. One was that Sally had never met Jack, and that she had gotten the key from someone else who was borrowing it at the time, which was possible considering how often Jack borrowed out his key. The second one he thought more likely, however, was that in the short time she had met Jack, he had never told her that _he_ was the Pumpkin King. The doctor found this as a relief. He could use this to his advantage.

"I don't know Sally, I could pay the Pumpkin King a visit right now and tell him what you've been doing." He decided this threat worked whether she knew who Jack was or not.

Sally's eyes widened.

"Please don't I promise I wont ever do it again! The last time was an accident, I didn't mean to be out there! Please don't get Jack into any trouble! He didn't really know what he was doing I swear!" The words came tumbling out of her in a rush. Finally when the doctor had heard enough to satisfy his curiosity and answer his questions he cut her off.

"Enough!" The doctor made a shooing gesture to Igor, who obliged grudgingly. He had been enjoying the show.

After he was gone the doctor fixed Sally with a look she had never seen before. It was that of compassion and understanding.

"I know your restless my dear, but you must understand I keep you here for your own good. Look what you've done already, by leaving this house you have deceived me and Jack, and got him into trouble by making him do things he didn't know he was doing." Sally's face grew hot, as a bitter shame wore over her

"I'm going to do you a favor Sally. If you promise not to leave this house ever again I wont mention any of this mess to The Pumpkin King or anyone else in Halloween Town." His firm parental look turned to that of his usually suspicious and grouchy one. "Do we agree?"

Sally was staring at the doctor with wide frightful eyes, they now filled with a little relief, mixed with that of sorrow.

"If I promise…you wont say anything?" Sally asked the doctor softly. The Dr grinned to show her he was serious. Sally nodded.

"I promise." The doctor nodded his approval.

"Good, finish dinner and get to bed." Sally had been looking down at the old wooden floor, she looked up now.

"What about my punishment?" She said, feeling a little hesitation at asking the question at all.

"I trust you aren't a complete fool Sally, surely you've learned your lesson by now…and it was an accident."

"Thank you, sir." She said gratefully. Felling shame come upon her again, this time for thinking ill of the doctor.

The next day progressed much like any other day would have before Sally had ever left the house. This should have been a relief to her. The whole business about the deadly Night shade had apparently blown over. Instead, she found herself in a terribly depressed mood, plus, she was extremely bored, she had felt guilty for a long time after the doctor had left, and still did, but she also found herself wondering how she would survive in this place. She found herself frequently looking out the window, and her mind kept wondering back to Jack. She hoped that the doctor would return his key to him…

She wished she could talk to him again, now knowing that it would never be so. She had to stay in the house. She had to do it for her master and for Jack. Still, she couldn't help wanting to see his charming smile and hear his lovely voice. But it was best not think about him.

Jack was leaning on his window, with his skull rested on his skeletal palm, absently tracing the swirls in his window with one long narrow finger. He was deep in thought, and not really observing anything beyond his plated glass. He had been working all night, and had just got back a couple hours before. He had tried to sleep for a little while, but when that failed just settled for staring out on his town in a morose fashion.

Jack sighed, and scanned his room in a dismissive way. His eyes pausing shortly on the sleeping form of his ghost dog Zero before moving on to an empty hook by his front door, next to it the old rusted key to his tower hung in solitude. Jack rose his head and narrowed one eye in a curious manner. It had been the morning before that he had loaned his skeleton key out to Sally. He hadn't really expected it back right away, people sometimes kept it for several days. But it occurred to him now that he had no way of getting it back himself…he didn't know where she lived. He lowered his head again, this time resting it on both of his arms on his window sill and closing his eyes. He let his thoughts wonder, frequently going back to that odd girl. He wondered if there was any way of getting out of the rehearsal that would take place this coming night.

'Well,' he thought to himself. 'At least I don't have to do anything before then.' He yawned and was halfway into a light sleep when another thought paraded his mind.

'Of course you have work to do…YOU always have work to do.' Jack groaned, and opened up one eye. He sat up and looked across the peeled tile of Halloween Towns street. The doctors house stood like an eyesore against the morbid scenery. Jack sighed deeply, and stood up. He had nearly forgotten that he had to visit the doctor to look at his machine again. There were only a few more days until Halloween and most of those he would spend getting ready…this may be the only chance he would get.

"I've got to go out Zero, I'll be back." Jack said. The sleeping Zero rose his head briefly, but otherwise seamed uninterested. Jack pulled open the Trap door and descended the staircase. He held onto the hopeful thought that the visit wouldn't take long, due to the doctors less then neighborly attitude.

Igor was dragging himself around the dining room, having finished his work in the lab when their came a loud knock from the front door, and then the sound of a loud ominous bell.

"Get that Igor!" The doctors faint voice drifted from the laboratory.

Igor limped to the door, and pulled it open.

The doctor was working carefully on a potion that would burn things from the inside out if they should taste it (Made particularly for the neighborhood cat, who constantly found its way in his lab and ate his experiments.) when Igor stumbled into the lab.

"Who is it Igor?" The doctor asked while adding a drip of some liquid that was glowing lightly.

"It's the Pumpkin King sir." The doctor dropped the potion (Which burned a hole in his floor and stared up at Igor in shock.

"I nearly forgot! Did you let him in?"

Igor looked as though he was thinking hard about this (It looked painful). Then slowly shook his head. The doctor scowled at him.

"Well go let him in!" The doctor snapped bitterly. Igor was on his way when the doctor changed his mind.

"No, wait, let me do it. You go tell Sally to get up to her room." The doctor quickly picked up the pieces of glass from the floor, ignoring the burns on his hands. He then wheeled quickly to the front door.

Sally was just finishing up lunch when Igor walked in.

"You have to go to your room, Sally." Sally turned around to face Igor.

"Why?" She asked, thinking maybe Igor was just tricking her, so he could lock her in her room. (Which was not so unlikely since he had already done it once that morning. )

"Company." Igor said, and as though it was some sort of cue, Sally heard the front door open and the doctor exclaim something she couldn't quite hear. She put her sampling spoon down on the counter, but didn't go anywhere.

"Jack, my boy! I completely forgot about your visit! I apologize for Igor's rude behavior." Jack nodded, his regular grin present.

"I apologize for coming so unexpectedly." Jack said pleasantly as the doctor let him in.

"No trouble, I assure you." The doctor cast a nervous glance over his shoulder towards the kitchen.

"Would you excuse me for a moment. Please stay here, I need to check on something." The doctor wheeled off, leaving Jack to examine his surroundings absently.

Sally heard the approach of the doctor, she had begun to creep towards the stairway when he entered.

"Sally!" Sally paused and fixed the doctor with a curious and guilty look.

"I was going." She said.

"Well hurry up!" The doctor snapped as he started to head back into the entry room.

"Whose come to visit? The mayor?" Sally asked, before she had a chance to stop herself.

"That isn't any of your business." The doctor said with warning in his voice. He eyed Sally quickly, and then a cunning look passed over his face.

"If you must know, it's the Pumpkin King." The doctor grinned a little when he saw Sally's reaction.

Sally's eye's had widened. 'The Pumpkin King was here? Now?' She thought to herself wildly.

"That's right Sally, so if you don't want me telling on your little friend, You'd better hurry and get up to your room." Sally nodded once and slipped up the stairs quietly.

"Yes sir." She whispered.

As she made her way up the stairs her mind was working quickly. She didn't want to get into trouble, but the thought of the Pumpkin King being there in this house exited her immensely. She had already decided she was little intimidated by him, but she had been looking at his shadow against the light of his large windows for such a long time, always wondering what he was like, and how he acted, or what The Pumpkin King, the ruler of this bizarre town must look like.

'Probably horrible.' She thought to herself. It seamed that in Halloween Town the most horrible things were the most valued, and vise versa. So using this logic, it was only best to assume the Pumpkin King was a foul and horrible looking creature. Still, Sally's curiosity ran wild. She stopped at the top of the stairs, and looked back down. In doing this a nervous sensation crept up from her stomach.

'Well,' She thought, as a gregarious feeling washed over her. 'Perhaps just a peek would be worth any trouble I'd get into.' She was about halfway back down the stairs when she remembered Jack. If the doctor caught her…he'd be in trouble too. Her shoulders slumped, and she let out a restless sigh. She couldn't risk it. She didn't want Jack to get into any trouble. And she didn't even want to think what the Pumpkin King might do if he caught her. It would probably make the doctors punishments look harmless. Sally started back up the stairs, feeling disappointed.

If she would have made it up the stairs, Sally probably wouldn't have disobeyed the doctor on this occasion, or any other after this one, for that matter. But Sally found herself frozen in place when an unexpected voice drifted up to her from the room below.

"-no, I couldn't possibly stay for lunch, I'm kind of in a hurry."

"That is a pity, Jack. I understand, though, I know how busy you are this time of year."

Sally nearly fell down the stairs.

Ok…NOW I think there is only one more chapter left. This was suppose to be the last one, but I've been running into some writing problems, and other things have been distracting me. I would have made this longer, but I wanted to post something. It's taken longer then I hoped it would, and I'm having a bit of a hard time developing this part.

Thank you again for your reviews.


	7. The Things That Lie Beyond This

Well, here it is, the last chapter. (And it really is this time.) I finished it earlier then I expected. I hope you enjoy it and that it is everything you expect it to be. Thank you for reading my story.

Chapter Seven

The Things Outside of This.

Sally gripped the rail of the staircase with her tiny hand. With the other, she had covered her lips just as a gasp had escaped from her. Jack was there? Sally felt confused. The doctor had said that the Pumpkin King was visiting. But she KNEW that that voice belonged to Jack.

Sally was no longer thinking of going to her room. Instead, she tiptoed the rest way down the stairs, and leaned against the doorway. She had left the door open a crack in her hurry to comply with the doctors wishes. She squinted into the room beyond the door, as a faint stripe of light from the door way traveled down her body, and illuminated her curious eye.

She could still hear faint voices, and could infer where they were coming from by the direction in which she heard them. They were in the doctors lab. Sally sighed, and backed away from the door, leaning against the wall, deep in thought.

Did the doctor lie to her? She thought that must have been it. The doctor didn't want her to see Jack again, so he made up a story about the Pumpkin King being there to scare her off. Surely, the Pumpkin King was far too busy with the celebration being only a few days away to make house calls. In her excitement she hadn't considered this. But it made perfect sense now that she had time to think about it. Sally lowered to the floor and rested her chin in her palm. She looked up the stairway, deciding whether or not she wanted to go up, or catch a glimpse of Jack. With her common sense now slowly returning, she figured she should probably just ignore the fact that he was there, and obey the doctor. She forgot all about her common sense, however, when she heard the doctor and Jack making their way back into the kitchen. Quickly…but quietly just the same, she rose to her knees and looked through the opening in the doorway again.

Jack and the doctor walked back into the kitchen. The doctor was explaining something to Jack that had to do with the way the machine worked, ( Something about working the gears right, or losing ones arm as a consequence.) but Jack found himself drifting off quite a bit throughout the doctors instructions.

"So do you understand now, Jack?" The doctor asked, while fixing Jack with an obviously false smile that said that he knew Jack wasn't paying attention.

"Huh? Oh yes, thank you, your information has been very useful." Jack said, grinning to show he had been listening, even though in the short time he had been there he had heard only a few guidelines the doctor had gone over.

"Well, if you'd like, I could bring the machine up here and demonstrate for you." The doctor said. Although he sounded pleasant and helpful, Jack saw an unpleasant hint of something in his face that told him he was really just trying to show off. Still, Jack decided that if he didn't see a demonstration he'd probably screw it up on Halloween night.

"Excellent. That would be very helpful." Jack said, surprising even himself with how genuine his voice sounded. The doctor looked pleased.

"It'll only take a moment." The doctor said, wheeling back to the lab to get his machine, on his way he cast a brief look at the wall, where he had hung Jacks key up earlier.

"Oh! Jack that reminds me." He wheeled to the wall, and slowly removed the old skeleton key from the rusted hook. He looked at it for a moment then outstretched his hand for Jack to take it. Jack narrowed his eye sockets and took his key from the doctor.

"Where did you-" Jack started, a puzzled note in his voice.

"I was headed towards town yesterday to complete some of the things I had to do, and that I couldn't get Igor or any of my experiments to do for me, when I looked to the side of the road, where I saw your key lying." Jack listened to the explanation while examining the key in his hand.

"By the side of the road? Alright…thank you for returning it to me…I guess." Jack said the last part quietly after the doctor had nodded and began once again to make his way to the lab.

When the doctor was gone Jack sat in one of the doctors chairs (He found one that was not quite so dusty or moldy as some of the others, marveling at the fact that some of them were so bad that even he couldn't find anything pleasantly horrible about them.) He stared at his key for a while, thinking about Sally and wondering about how the key got by the side of the road.

While Jack was sitting, he happened to glance at a door on the wall opposite of him that was opened just slightly. As he did he heard something from behind it and the door slammed shut. Jack straightened and stared at it in surprise. He was still looking at it when the doctor came back up, wheeling in his large complicated contraption.

"Here we are…we-" The doctor stopped, fixing Jack with an odd look.

Jack snapped out of his confused state and turned his attention on the doctor.

"Sorry." He said, sounding to himself just a touch embarrassed. "What were you saying?" The doctor continued, looking a bit miffed.

"I was just saying that we should be able to do a few basic experiments and get you back to your responsibilities in no time." The doctor said, his voice clearing as he did so.

"Oh…yes of course, that would be wonderful." Jack smiled, he carefully set his key down on the wooden table beside him before standing and turning away from the wall to face the doctor who was beginning the first experiment, casting only a brief look at the door behind him. As he did so, he found that it had been opened a crack again.

Sally's heart beat had quickened. He had almost seen her! The second time she had to use all of her willpower not to slam the door shut again. If only she hadn't the first time! She didn't think Jack had seen anyone behind the door, but she knew she had at least startled or confused him. All she could hope for was that he would just let it go and would not say anything to the doctor, who would know immediately what it meant.

Sally got over a bit of her shock, feeling some anger return. The doctor had lied about how he had gotten the key. Sally supposed she should have been relieved that the doctor didn't mention her at all. But he had made her look like she had been careless and hadn't taken care of the possession that was loaned to her. Sally hoped Jack didn't think poorly of her for it.

Sally gathered her courage and peeked through the door again. As her nerves began to settle themselves out, she found herself just enjoying being able see Jack. At least here, in the shelter of the door, she could examine him all she wanted without worrying about what he would think of it, or what he would think of her. She smiled faintly to herself, without being aware of it, and felt a warm feeling in her heart, in which she placed her hand over. It was something she had never felt before, and she believed she liked this new feeling just fine.

"Would you like to try it Jack?" The doctor was saying on the other side of the door. "You should probably get some experience before you use it in rehearsal." He looked at Jack expectantly. Sally knew that look. It meant he was expecting Jack to do it wrong. He fixed her with the same look every time she started sewing or making dinner in front of him, right before he told her she was doing it all wrong and that she was not yet able to complete simple tasks without messing them all up. Sally sighed to herself, turning her attention away from her thoughts before one of the doctors full speeches ran through her head.

"Oh, sure. I suppose I could try it out." Sally bit her lip, hoping he didn't mess things up too badly. At the same time she felt herself admiring Jacks confident attitude. Even if he had no idea what he was doing, he certainly wasn't letting on, or showing any hesitation or wariness towards attempting the task. She wondered lightly how someone could come by such confidence.

Jack moved to where the doctor was standing when he had done the first demonstration and examined the gears carefully.

"Let's see." Sally watched as Jack leaned over the gears, his tall thin frame built in a position of concentration. He reached out with one of his long hands and pulled down the first three levers. Sally wasn't sure if this was right, but by casting a quick look to the doctor she decided it must be, he looked disappointed. Jack pulled down the last, and the machine made a sick metallic sound as a large spider crawled from the compartment on the side. Jack stood back up, once again to his full height, looking satisfied.

"Well done Jack." The doctor said, halfheartedly. Jack shrugged, his grin back in place.

"It was luck, I could have just as easily messed it up." His voice sounded pleasant, and had no indication within it that suggested he had thought even for a second that he would screw things up. Sally smiled, mentally applauding Jacks success.

"Well, I suppose doing things right the first time is a part of your job, Jack. And one of many reasons why your so good at it." The doctor said. Any bitterness he had had was not evident now, on the surface at least. Sally knew him well enough, having lived with him for so long, that he still felt quite bitter. His compliments were just a way to conceal this from Jack. Sally wondered briefly why he would go to so much trouble to do so. The doctor didn't act so falsely pleasant toward the mayor. Why was he making such fuss over Jack, especially when the doctor knew he had helped her break back into the house.

"Well, I do my best. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to assist me. I wouldn't have had a clue how this thing worked otherwise." Jack responded.

Sally had been looking at Jack again, and daydreaming a little when the doctors next words abruptly brought her out of her thoughts.

"I imagine expectations are set rather high when it comes to being the Pumpkin King." The doctor added conversationally, though with little interest.

Sally straightened, staring at Jack and the doctor in alarm. What had he said?

"Well, it's all part of the title…" Jack was saying, as confused thoughts began running through Sally's head. The Pumpkin King? What did the Pumpkin King have to do with Jack? The doctor must be confused, Jack couldn't be the Pumpkin King.

"Well I'll let you get back to your work Jack. I'm sure the residents of town are just about losing their minds without you." The doctor said, causing Sally to straighten and stare on at them in mounting disbelief

"It is getting late, I should probably try to get down to the graveyard early so we can finish before dawn." Jack said the last part in a mild and somehow feigned amusement.

"Well it was marvelous to have you drop by, I hope you'll come back if you ever need anything. Always a pleasure to serve the Pumpkin King." The doctor said, sounding more falsely pleasant then ever.

"Thank you for having me." Jack said in return.

Sally sat in the dark, feeling as though she should be moving, given the fact the doctor would probably be checking on her the moment after Jack left, but feeling unable to leave her place in front of the door. It couldn't be. Jack couldn't be the Pumpkin King. He couldn't be because…

Butthe argument now felt completely false to her. As she thought back to the two times she had met him, she felt what denial she put up against this truth fade away quickly. In the very short time she had known him, she found, she had never once wondered why their conversation had been interrupted both times by people demanding his attention, why the people who came upon their first meeting came to him acting as though he had been missing for days instead of a couple hours, and were not angry with him when he had left the meeting, why _he_ should have the skeleton key to the city, and finally, now that she thought of it, why he had given her that strange look when she had mentioned the Pumpkin King's talents and accomplishments when they had been sitting at the fountain.

Realizing this, Sally dropped her head into her hands, feeling her face grow warm, even with no one there to see her embarrassment. She had been talking to Jack about himself. Not only that, but she had asked the Pumpkin King why they celebrated Halloween and if he ever got tired of it…She had called him by his first name like she actually considered herself somewhat equal to him…she had even started to develop some strange feelings towards him. Thinking about all of this made her want to crawl into a crack in the floor to escape from the horrible shame that was filling her now.

Jack was the Pumpkin King.

Although Sally was unaware of it, Jack had cast one final glance in her direction before leaving. As he did so, he managed to catch a bit of movement and the vague outline of a shadow behind the door. Jack narrowed his eyes in curiosity. Someone had been watching them.

The doctor escorted Jack to the door, As Jack stepped through the door way a vague smile crossed the doctors lips.

"Goodbye Jack, Feel free to come back any time." He said. Jack could see the doctor was glad he was getting rid of his guest.

"Goodbye doctor, thank you again." Jack said as he turned away from the doctors house.

"Don't mention it." The doctor said, before shutting the door.

Jack was about halfway to his house before he stopped, and smacked his forehead in frustration. He had left his key at the doctors house. He turned around and headed back down the old road, mentally cursing himself for bringing it upon himself to go back into the doctors unwelcome company.

After Sally heard the front door shut she rose to her feet and headed up the stairs quietly, she wasn't really putting much thought into her actions, her mind was focused on the things she had heard from behind the door. How could she be so stupid. She bit her lip in frustrated anger and embarrassment. Why hadn't Jack told her that he was the Pumpkin King, instead of letting her make such a big fool of herself.

Sally shut the door to her bedroom behind her and crossed the floor to her bed. She sat, and looked to the window, trying to distract her mind from her humiliation.

"Sally!" She heard the doctors voice from about halfway down the stairs. "You can come back down and finish lunch now." Sally sighed and stood up from her bed, wishing that she could just lay there for the rest of the night.

She left her room and headed back to the kitchen, doing so in a depressed manner that the doctor apparently didn't pick up on.

"Hurry up with whatever your making, I'm starved." He said bitterly, his false kindness gone for the day now that Jack had departed.

Sally picked up in her recipe where she had left off, getting the stuff that had already been made from the ice box, which rarely housed anything but a few odd things that Sally thought might have been there since before the day she was made. She started up on her cooking, trying to focus on it and not her thoughts when her eyes happened to glance towards the wooden table. She looked up from her cooking and leaned closer to towards the old splintery dining table so that she could see the small object sitting there. Jack had left his key. Sally reached out to pick it up as she did she heard a knock come from the front door. She snapped her head upward, and then in the direction of the doctors lab, waiting for him to tell Igor to get it. He didn't, he must not have heard. There was another brief knock and then the bell rang. Still the doctor didn't seam to hear.

In his lab the doctor was working on feeding a very ugly looking bird that was featherless and was staring at the doctor through a set of gruesome red eyes while making a very loud irritating sound. The doctor had put on earplugs so he wouldn't have to hear it. He pulled one from his ear, thinking he had heard something. The doctors eyes narrowed. He had been sure he had heard a bell. He decided to finish feeding the loud creature, then he would check on Sally to make sure she wasn't doing anything against his orders.

Sally stood in the kitchen silently. When there wasn't another knock on the door she relaxed a little, hoping that whoever had been there had given up.

Sally was turning back to her work when the kitchen door opened. Sally swung back around only to find herself face to face with Jack who had stopped suddenly and was now staring at her in shock. Sally felt a sick feeling of horror rise up inside of her. She wasn't able to speak or move, and instead just stood there and stared at Jack with wide eyes.

Jack stood in the kitchen doorway for a long time. He had been at the front door, and had knocked so as not to intrude, but decided in the end to just slip in quietly and then sneak back out with his key. That way he didn't have to bother the doctor. He, however, had not been expecting this. He felt frozen in place. After a moment or two when the situation began to feel really uncomfortable, Jack tried to grasp for something to say.

"Sally…" He started, one of his eye's narrowed in a look that said he did not understand what was going on. Another door in the room opened, and the doctor wheeled in making matters worse. He stopped when he saw Jack and Sally, and after looking at them both briefly fixed Sally with a bitter look.

"To your room Sally." He said, his voice filled with a coldness that Jack had never heard before in him.

"Yes sir." Sally said, her voice small and quiet, seaming to thin out and vanish as it crossed the room to Jack. Her head was lowered and she did not look at him as she crossed the kitchen to a doorway that seemingly stood in front of a long and dark staircase.

When Sally was gone Jack stared at the doctor with a still somewhat shocked expression on his face. The doctor fixed him with a returning look, cold and stern, but still not as unkind as that of which he had fixed Sally with.

"I apologize Jack. But may I ask why you have returned." The doctor asked suspiciously. Jack looked down at the table and picked up his key.

"I forgot this." Jack said holding it up. Some of his shock was gone now. "I knocked but no one answered. I apologize for intruding, but I figured you were busy and did not want to bother you."

The doctors face cleared a little. Throughout Jacks explanation, he had listened for any shame or guilt or any weakness in Jacks voice, and felt dismayed when he heard none. Jack was telling the truth, and doing so in the confident manner that was to be expected of him. The doctor nodded after Jack had finished.

"I apologize for telling you a fib Jack, in accordance to that key. You see, Sally is mine. I made her. I gave her everything you see on her. I brought her to life and I have kept her here for a reason. She is not ready to interact with others, she isn't capable of doing much of anything right, as of now she is still very foolish and does not understand things the way there suppose to be understood."

Jack listened to this, trying to keep his face set to a neutral expression. The doctor had made her? The way he talked about her you would think he considered her a huge mistake. Jack supposed that explained why she seamed so different from the other people in town…but at the same time…he had never once considered her to be foolish and flawed in her thinking. He had enjoyed the change…in fact, he didn't think he had ever met anyone who thought quite so much like himself before. Even if he did understand Halloween, unlike everyone else, who seamed to be so dense that they couldn't seam to grasp anything outside of the work they did each day before the celebration, he had his doubts, and often wondered what other things there were out there…besides Halloween.

The things the doctor was saying did explain a lot, though. It explained why he had never seen Sally before that night he had met her for the first time a few days before, and why she had been so frightened of him at first, and why she was so different from the other's in Halloween town, in both her looks and her attitude and perception.

Still, Jack was finding it hard to take in that he had spent the last couple of days thinking constantly about a girl who was made by Dr. Finklestein. He had been very curious about her, and with good reason. Things rarely changed in Halloween Town, and she had been very different. Now he knew why, and finding out the truth depressed him. It meant that having been made by the doctor, in his own lab, by his own hands that no matter how much she seamed like an individual person, she still, somehow, whether it was right or not belonged to the doctor. Jack felt that this was just a bit unfair.

"I apologize again Jack, I hope she hasn't caused much trouble, she's been acting quite dysfunctional lately, I think there might be something wrong with her. Just a few evenings ago she accidentally poisoned me." As the doctor said this Jack got the feeling that he was expecting a reaction from him.

"Did she?" Jack answered, trying to act surprised. "That's awful." He hoped he had sounded genuine enough for the doctor. The doctor looked satisfied enough, so Jack supposed he had.

"Well Jack, I guess you better get going. I hope you wont be late." Jack smiled faintly.

"I think I'll be fine, it isn't too late." Jack said this, but knew that it was late enough. He was sure he'd be on time for rehearsal, but he might as well let go of the hope of getting any sleep this afternoon.

"Be sure to have a horrible evening Jack." The doctor said, while turning back to his lab.

"I'm sure I will." Jack said, feeling his mind working more towards the word in it's unpleasant meaning rather then the usual one that was common in Halloween Town. As he left the kitchen he cast what was meant to be one final look at the door Sally had exited from. As he did this, two thoughts came to mind. One was that he was now sure that Sally had been the one watching them from the crack in which the door had been opened to earlier, the other was an idea. It didn't take Jack much time to make up his mind. When he was turned from the doctor he put his fingers to his chin in a pondering gesture, and grinned very much like he did, or once had on Halloween night. He exited the kitchen, pausing outside the door and listening for the sound of the door on the other side of the room as it closed. When he heard the door click in place he slipped back into the kitchen without making a sound and headed towards the door that held the stairway.

Sally stood in the darkness, staring out her window, which she had opened despite the doctor warning her not to. She decided there was really no point to keeping the window shut now. She may get into trouble, but she was finding it very hard to care about that now. Besides that she felt she could care less about anything now that she knew Jack wouldn't get into trouble, now that he had seen her. She bit her lip to keep her tears of embarrassment suppressed. She felt a little angry now as well. The doctor had lied to her, and had let her make a fool of herself, Jack had let her make a fool of herself by not telling her who he was, but now that Jack knew who she was, he probably couldn't care less what he had or had not told her. She lowered her eyes. As she did the music from the band that played across the street drifted up to her. She listened to it, feeling some of her bitter emotions ease slightly, at least for the moment, and feeling grateful that they were there.

Her door opened quietly, but Sally didn't turn because of it, because she had not heard it. What brought her attention out of her thoughts and the lovely forlorn music playing from across the street was a long shadow as it fell upon her. When she looked up, thinking she would find the doctor sitting in the door way looking at her in a kind of growing rage, she was surprised to instead find Jack who had somehow crossed the room without her noticing and without making a sound, and who had his foot up on a wooden chair sitting just a few feet away from her and was now observing her from a position with his chin rested in his palm.

Sally jumped, feeling and looking completely startled. She was still for a few minutes, just eyeing him in a stricken manner. When she came out of her momentary shock, it was replaced with that of embarrassment and a hint anger at being intruded upon and caught off guard.

"Hello Sally." Jack said in the dark before standing to his full height. The anger vanished from Sally's face. She now just stared at Jack feeling very puzzled and at a loss for words. She also couldn't help but feel her fixation on him return. She tried to stop the feeling, but did so to no avail, and found herself apologizing to him instead.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I had no idea who you were, and I was so curious about what the town was like. I didn't mean to cause you any trouble or to lie to you, I just wanted to find out if there was anything outside this place…" She talked very quickly and as she did felt all of her anger vanish, which had been brought on more by her embarrassment then anything else. She now just felt a need to explain to Jack why she had did what she had, and that she did so because she hadn't known who he was or what sort of trouble it would cause.

"Sally, relax…" Jack said, smiling and saying it with some amusement, while waving her explanation away. "And please, you don't need to call me sir, no one else in town does. I didn't come up here to blame you for anything, I came up to apologize." Sally stopped in the middle of her explanation and stared at Jack in confusion. Why was he treating her like an equal still? And what's more, why was he, The Pumpkin King apologizing to her. She closed her mouth and gave Jack what must have been a very bewildered look.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. I didn't mean put you on the spot when we met, I didn't know who you were. I also apologize for not telling you I was the Pumpkin King, I think I tried to the last time we met. I just got interrupted. Besides, I rarely run into people who don't know who I am, it was kind of refreshing." Jack fixed her with an apologetic grin. Sally just stood where she was, looking more and more distressed. She hadn't been expecting anything like this from him.

"Um…" Sally started, still looking somewhat lost. "That's alright…I-" Sally paused, at a complete loss for words. She sighed and came out of her confusion a little.

"Your not…upset?" She asked finally, looking bewildered.

"Why would I be upset?" Jack said, his smile fading and turning into a simple and sincere look.

"Because…because I went against my masters orders, and didn't tell you who I was, and went into your town when…I don't really belong there. " Sally said, feeling a bit odd, like she was trying to convince Jack why he should be angry with her.

"Who says you don't belong here?" Jack said, giving her a curious look.

"Well, I'm not like everyone else here. I was made, I don't fully understand the purpose of this town. And I still don't get how anyone could go around scaring people over and over without getting tired of it. And I don't think I ever will, no matter how often it's explained to me." Sally sighed, finishing her thought desperately. " I don't belong her because I don't fit in." She said, looking a little hurt at hearing the words coming from her own mouth. Jack cocked an invisible brow.

"Just because your different from everyone else doesn't mean you don't belong here. It just means you don't hold the same perspective as everyone else. To be perfectly honest, the last time I had a real conversation with anyone before I met you was…well…I can't remember if I've ever had a real conversation with anyone else in this town." Sally watched Jack, her mood which she had brought down herself slightly rising.

"You mean…you don't think there's something wrong with me?" She asked, feeling a little embarrassed at asking him. But Jack just smiled and shook his head, looking completely sincere.

"No, if anything you seam to be quite a bit more clever then just about anyone I've met in town before. You have a broader horizon then the residents here. Even though we're responsible for Halloween each year it doesn't mean we shouldn't have opinions outside of that." Sally smiled a little, feeling happier then she had in a while. Jack knew who she was now and he didn't seam to care. He still treated her like she belonged there. His compliments made her blush a little and all of the feelings she had been suppressing for him filled her with a sort of joy she had never felt before.

"Anyway, it is getting quite late now. I have rehearsal to get to. You've seen how the town gets when I'm not there. Goodbye Sally." He said.

"Goodbye." Sally said softly. She happened to look at the wooden chair only to see Jack's key shining dully from it.

"Wait, Jack, you forgot your key!" She said, picking it up and holding it out to him. Jack looked at it for a moment. And gave her an embarrassed look.

"Yeah, I seam to be doing that a lot lately." He started to reach for it then pulled his hand back. "you know what…" He started, a faint smile across his skull. "Just keep it for now. You can return it to me some other time." He turned leaving Sally to stand staring after his retreating form curiously, trying to decide what he meant by leaving her his key. Jack stopped in the doorway as he did he looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, and by the way, Halloween is in two days, we start at sunset, and go until midnight. I'm telling you this in case you want drop in for a while…perhaps…it will give you a better idea of what this town is about. Come if you can." He finished, and with that was out the doorway and down the stairs, leaving with the same grace that he had used to come, so that Sally could not hear him as he went. Sally stood in the darkness for a while, watching the door, where Jack had just been standing, and holding his key tightly in her tiny stitched fingers. After a while she went back to the window, just in time to see him heading towards town, pausing only to tip the band, which she was hearing again, now that her attention was off of Jack. She stood there for a while, a smile playing on her lips her thoughts focused on Jack. By the time the doctor came to her room she had already hid the key beneath her mattress and had closed the large window.

The doctor told her to finish dinner, seaming to not be in the mood to scold her, and not finding any need to since her seeing Jack had been a complete accident this time. She returned to her work in good spirits. As she continued cooking thoughts of Jack drifted about her mind, making her smile.

Sally had a feeling she was going to be out on Halloween night.

End.

Well that's it. I hope it was pleasing, and I hope that I didn't disappoint anyone. I'd also like to apologize for my spelling errors. As was commented on in one of the reviews. I'm terrible with grammatical things. It's one of my larger weaknesses in writing. I assure you that I try to fix my writing as best as I can. I've just never been that good at anything grammar related. Thank you for your reviews, they were the thing that kept me writing, despite my eagerness to begin another story. I also thank you for reading my story. The pleasure in writing it is almost secondary to the pleasure of having it read.


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